Amazon Said To Make a Bid To Buy TikTok in the US (nytimes.com) 33
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon has put in a last-minute bid to acquire all of TikTok, the popular video app, as it approaches an April deadline to be separated from its Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States, according to three people familiar with the bid.
Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon's bid seriously, the people said. The bid came via an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, according to a person briefed on the matter. Amazon's bid highlights the 11th-hour maneuvering in Washington over TikTok's ownership. Policymakers in both parties have expressed deep national security concerns over the app's Chinese ownership, and passed a law last year to force a sale of TikTok that was set to take effect in January.
Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon's bid seriously, the people said. The bid came via an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, according to a person briefed on the matter. Amazon's bid highlights the 11th-hour maneuvering in Washington over TikTok's ownership. Policymakers in both parties have expressed deep national security concerns over the app's Chinese ownership, and passed a law last year to force a sale of TikTok that was set to take effect in January.
Letter to a politician? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Letter to a politician? (Score:5, Funny)
Dear President Trump, I have purchased 500,000 of your shitcoins and several truckloads of your sneakers. Please let me buy TikTok.
P.S. If you need to move some of those bibles printed in China then Amazon is your distributor!
Re: (Score:1)
Funny not funny and another case where insight is called for. But the joke I was looking for was "What could possibly go wrong?"
The biblical postscript was good, but it's also funny-not-funny. [And is the first usage also adjectival calling for hyphenation?] One of the things I most dislike about Amazon is the destruction of the publishing business. But perhaps we already have too many books and don't need no more of that darn fool reading stuff?
Cross-rant from LinkedIn. I recently wrote a little rant about
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c/some routed/somehow routed/
And I didn't even get a Funny mod. Just some troll wannabe censor.
Re:Letter to a politician? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think he cares about TikTok as a business, just as a propaganda outlet. He bought the Washington Post for the same reason.
Guys like him and President Musk have enough money they can buy these websites and single-handedly fund them, and not even notice the price tag. (Of course using intermediaries as an obfuscation.)
If he can make any money with TikTok, I'm sure he will. But as long as the platform has users he can manipulate, he will provide whatever funds necessary to keep it going.
The article says his bid isn't being taken seriously, I think it's more that the analysts don't understand his motivation isn't profit.
A solid investment I'm sure (Score:3)
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We are pawns in the Plutocrat Asshole Olympics.
Bezos, is retired. (Score:3)
I have a feeling this will work out about as well as Amazon's foray into creating their own original programming for Prime members. Maybe Bezos is just bored and wants to compete against Musk to see who can piss off their user base the fastest.
Andy Jassy has been the CEO of Amazon since 2021.
Bezos isn’t bored. He’s fucking retired.
His wealth vs. his penchant for rather unattractive women, is another matter entirely.
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I have a feeling this will work out about as well as Amazon's foray into creating their own original programming for Prime members. Maybe Bezos is just bored and wants to compete against Musk to see who can piss off their user base the fastest.
Andy Jassy has been the CEO of Amazon since 2021.
Bezos isn’t bored. He’s fucking retired.
His wealth vs. his penchant for rather unattractive women, is another matter entirely.
The ongoing theory is that Bezos has little interest in women other than as a public show of his masculinity. Not to imply he's gay, by any means. It seems he's more uninterested in sex on a traditional basis. Perhaps as a curiosity, or a means to procreation should his sensors indicate such would be a good business move, but certainly not as an enjoyable passtime or a sign of affection or bonding. As such, he finds women of merit in other ways, rather than basing his pursuit on traditional attraction.
Studi
Re: Bezos, is retired. (Score:2)
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In the penchant for unattractive women contest, Musk wins hands down. Sanchez was a weather girl in Los Angeles, back when that meant something. You did not get that gig without being trashy-hot.
If trashy-hot is your tool of the trade, then it is irrelevant as to how trashy-hot someone WAS. It only matters how trashy-hot someone IS. That IS a depreciating asset and problem. One that is easily dismissed on this planet for a man whose line for willing hot suitors forms to the left and would require permits from three adjoining counties, because of his wealth.
And given Musks latest accuser, along with his past relationships (Amber Heard), I’d say there’s a strong difference between what
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If you wanna be happy for the rest of your life
Never make a pretty woman your wife
So from my personal point of view
Get an ugly girl to marry you
A good fit (Score:2)
Makes sense. Amazon is basically a company for pushing Chinesium goods, why not their video as well.
But doesn't Musk have first option (Score:1)
Due to his position relative to Trump
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Due to his position relative to Trump
I doubt he even wants it. His reasons for even being in the social media business are more personal than business (personal positions/beliefs on Free Speech, suppression of speech, etc.). Buying Twitter was a known financial loss before purchase. Wasn’t done for financial reasons.
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Due to his position relative to Trump
I doubt he even wants it. His reasons for even being in the social media business are more personal than business (personal positions/beliefs on Free Speech, suppression of speech, etc.). Buying Twitter was a known financial loss before purchase. Wasn’t done for financial reasons.
But imagine his influence potential among teenagers if he grabbed TikTok as well. I wonder how long it would take him to drive off the userbase there?
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Plus, doesn't the social media site formerly known as Twitter already let people post those dumb short format vertical videos?
His reasons for even being in the social media business are more personal than business (personal positions/beliefs on Free Speech, suppression of speech, etc.).
As I recall, Musk tried to get out of buying Twitter. Seeing as how it probably helped get Trump elected, which enabled Musk to worm himself into his current position of political influence, I'd say Musk certainly has a knack for making lemons into lemonade.
Israel is real reason for the ban (Score:5, Informative)
Hmm what's going on in Gaza now? Straight out annexation, no pussy footing around with annexation via settlers like on the West Bank . LIVE: Israel kills 71 Palestinians, declares it will seize land in Gaza https://www.aljazeera.com/news... [aljazeera.com]
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DOGE is oddly silent on matters like this. https://apnews.com/article/isr... [apnews.com]
Close to $300 billion since 1946. https://www.cfr.org/article/us... [cfr.org]
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The real reason is most likely that Zuck didn't like that younger generations saw Facebook as the old busted platform that their parents are on, and lobbied accordingly.
Sane washing (Score:4, Insightful)
Having every single major media outlet in the hands of a handful of clearly psychopathic billionaires is a bad thing but if it's one thing I'm sure of it's that we're not going to do anything about it.
But hey at least we've got 99 cent eggs right? Right?
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So when the election was going on bezos ordered the Washington Post to protect Donald Trump and attack Joe Biden repeatedly. Anyone who didn't tow the line was immediately fired. Technically they resigned. Having every single major media outlet in the hands of a handful of clearly psychopathic billionaires is a bad thing but if it's one thing I'm sure of it's that we're not going to do anything about it. But hey at least we've got 99 cent eggs right? Right?
Give us a few more weeks. I'm sure we can get it to 99 cents per egg.
All billionaires like Bezos (Score:1)
Are evil! All their money should be seized and given to us the proletarian so nobody would ever have to work again! We could then live an happy life like we deserve for eternity on UBI. Working is for slaves anyway and slavery is supposed to be abolished.
Regulations are written in blood. You can't just start slashing them and then pack the courts full of pro-corporate sycophants and not have consequences. But those consequences take a while to hit and since the media is controlled by billionaires it's easy
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Have you seen TikTok since Trump gave it his blessing to return? It's pushing pro-MAGA content hard. This cause is lost.
Jeff Bezos will launch it into space (Score:2)
A good development on the whole (Score:2)
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It will be easier to regulate and to sue an American tiktok than a Chinese one
Regulate and sue Amazon? That's a good one!
The other day it was recommending a UV sterilization lamp. You know, those things that will do permanent damage to your eyes and are typically behind an interlock when used in industrial processes? Yeah, there are tons of them for sale on Amazon because fuck, who cares if people buy them and blind themselves. Welcome to Amazon - caveat emptor.
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Why should I quit Facebook or TikTok?
No one of my 400 *real* Aikido Friends on Facebook is going to manage 35 mailing lists with different subsets of the same people to forward interesting Aikido events.
And where would I get my cat videos?
Same with TikTok, basically every Asian is on Tik Tok ... it is just so that Banks, Immigration Police and my lawyer are using LINE for important things, and not Tik Tok.
Just another way (Score:2)
Just another way to flog worthless Prime subscriptions.
And the data correlation between viewing and purchasing would be priceless.