Tag: After Tulsa And USDC Judge Nichols Injunction — Melts Down Is All Impotent Bluster On China TikTok January 19 20 2025 Denouement Delayed By At Least A Week

The Idea Of US Govt. “Owning” Part Of TikTok Is Likely A Non-Starter…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

The manifold Constitutional and antitrust issues it would create are simply… not things Tangerine 2.0 is capable of comprehending. [Moreover, Xi almost certainly won’t allow it.]

But in a perhaps mostly whimsical effort to “square the circle“, here — an entity (appropriately!) called Perplexity has tonight revised its prior longshot bid to provide that, once it has raised $300 billion in an IPO(!)… it would transfer non-voting stock to the US government equal to a 50% ownership interest stake.

I assume all this is at least partly whimsical, given that the company is a start up — and mentions a $300 billion IPO, as a condition to meeting Tangerine’s request. Honestly, even Tangerine is not that naïve… Perplexity will never be valued in a way to allow a $300 billion IPO.

Here’s what is known — about this likely publicity stunt of a “bid”:

…U.S. search engine startup Perplexity AI has revised the merger proposal it had submitted to TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance to create a new entity combining Perplexity and TikTok U.S., a person familiar with the proposal told Reuters on Sunday….

The U.S. government would own up to half of the new structure once it goes through an IPO of a valuation of at least $300 billion….

Okay then. What it lacks in serious rigor, it more than makes up for… in entertainment value, I guess. Onward, to a sunny Monday morning in the markets, then. Grin.

नमस्ते

Honestly, This Makes Very Little Difference To Me — But It Does Carry A Strong Whiff, Of Some Backroom Deal — That Benefits Tangerine 2.0 PERSONALLY…

~ condor ~ Leave a comment

Ahem. Let us put to the side, for a moment, that there is zero chance any multiple agency review has occurred (over the ’25 King Holiday weekend, no less!) to establish any lawful Presidential authority to determine that there has been “substantial progress” on a divestiture deal. Zero. [And afterall, the ByteDance parent has known for months that January 19, 2025 was on the bipartisan Congressional act’s calendar, and if it hasn’t already been in deep talks with Amazon or Oracle (or another), that is plainly no one’s fault but their own.]

Let us call… a spade… a spade: Tangerine 2.0 only cares about personally losing his some 13 million eyeballs, on TikTok. His statement this morning is 100% proof positive of this.

His first line was that the people “deserve to see our beautiful inaugural“. That is conclusive. In any event, while I am a believer in free expression platforms, this idea — that China can read every interaction, and know who talks to whom, and when and where — and about what… strikes me as a legitimate national security issue. [And Tangerine 1.0 absolutely agreed — back in 2020, trying to ban it with a solo executive order, in a ham-handed lawless overreach, BTW.] And a bipartisan Congress said so, last term — the President signed it into law, as well. Here’s the Sunday morning update,from CBS, though:

…While the Biden administration said enforcement of the law would be left to the incoming Trump administration, the company itself took itself offline shortly before Sunday’s midnight deadline.

Users in the U.S. who opened the app late Saturday night were greeted with a message with the headline, “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now….”

Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Sunday that the president-elect had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping and “they agreed to work together on this.”

“We can have an app that protects Americans,” Waltz said. “And I could tell you, I wouldn’t want the FBI or the U.S. government monitoring every keystroke or seeing every password, nor would we want the Chinese Communist Party. But we also want an app that 170 million Americans clearly really enjoy and that we were able to get our message out during the Trump campaign in a very powerful way….”

It is supremely… ironic that Tangerine 2.0 is reading a “shall” in the law, as a “may” — when for nine years, he and his minions have said that all “shalls” in the immigration rules meant that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris were committing impeachable offenses, and should be tried for crimes — all because they chose to follow our treaty obligations, faithfully as well. Balancing enforcement priorities, is what all of this is about. Tangerine says he won’t instruct the DoJ to come after ByteDance, for 90 more days.

ByteDance would be wise… to divest, during this legally-dubious grace period. After that, suits to enforce this law will be brought, against this incoming Administration.

Onward. What a silly little cha cha. For our part, on this King Day, we will brave sub-zero temps, and join the Resistance 2.0 march in the City of Big Shoulders. Pictures and video — by tomorrow night. It is where he would have… spent this day, to a near certainty.

[By the way, the now fifth crypto offering Tangerine launched just last week (on Thursday night) provides the perfect way to launder the payoffs he may be getting for all these… favors.] Out.

नमस्ते