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Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Considering Buying TikTok (nytimes.com) 42

Posted by BeauHD from the what-to-expect dept.
According to the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is reportedly considering buying TikTok. PCMag reports: Kotick floated the idea at a dinner at an Allen & Co. conference earlier this week with a group of potential partners, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the Journal says. Kotick left Activision in late December after more than 30 years following the approval of the Microsoft merger and a tumultuous period that included a damaging discrimination lawsuit. And while he got a hefty golden parachute, it's probably not enough to buy TikTok, so he'll need partners with deep pockets. The report comes amid a vote in the House that would require TikTok to be sold or banned in the United States.
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Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Considering Buying TikTok More

Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick Considering Buying TikTok

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  • Enshittification (Score:4, Funny)

    by Draconis183 ( 1871664 ) on Monday March 11, 2024 @10:08PM (#64308587)

    Surely if anyone can make TikTok worse than it is and an empty shell of what it could have been, itâ(TM)s the boys in charge at Activision.

    • Elon should buy TikTok and immediately shut it down.

      • Re:Enshittification (Score:4, Funny)

        by christoban ( 3028573 ) on Monday March 11, 2024 @10:59PM (#64308651)

        But first, rename it "X"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dohzer ( 867770 )

          Y?

          • Re: Enshittification (Score:2, Insightful)

            by saloomy ( 2817221 )
            Either way, it would be a bargain. Its valuation will be smaller than otherwise because of the impending regulatory pressure from congress. Once someone buys it, everyone will shut up and some congress people will collect their kickback for depressing the price as a favor to the buyer.

            • I don't see how Congress could "ban" it, unless they somehow pressured crapple and google into enforcing their own app store policies in a non-discriminatory way, in which case their own existing policies would ban it, in addition to a number of other apps. And Congress does have the power to do that, unless they change their app store policies to allow it in a way that is somehow non-discriminatory, which they may end up doing given crapple and google both allow their first party apps to ignore their own r

  • every time the US government wants to ban it?

    • Since the beginning of the dotcom era there have been rich investors laboring under the delusion that eyeballs can be turned into profit. TikTok has a lot of eyeballs.

      • How is that a delusion?

        • because so far very few have managed to turn those eyeballs into something that makes a profit. Twitter have operated on a loss since inception, much points to that YouTube is not making a profit (or at at least that it took decades for them to even break even). Tons of companies tried the "turn non paying users into profit" in the "New Economy" of the Dot-com Bubble and basically all of them failed.

          • because so far very few have managed to turn those eyeballs into something that makes a profit.

            Google and Meta are in the business of monetizing eyeballs.

            They have a combined market cap of over three trillion dollars.

            • Wow 2 that managed to survive when thousands died, ok then it must be really really easy to turn non paying eyeballs into profit.

          • because so far very few have managed to turn those eyeballs into something that makes a profit. Twitter have operated on a loss since inception, much points to that YouTube is not making a profit (or at at least that it took decades for them to even break even). Tons of companies tried the "turn non paying users into profit" in the "New Economy" of the Dot-com Bubble and basically all of them failed.

            When companies famously declared in their IPO filings that they’ve never made a profit, are suffering 8 and 9 figure losses every year, and may actually never turn a profit in the future, and yet somehow they were valued at billions, we didn’t exactly get a “new” economy from the dot bomb era. It was more an expansion of that same ignorance, only on a much more corrupt scale.

    • Just wait until they try to ban Truth Social, it will start WWIII.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by evanh ( 627108 )

        No need, since that's already US controlled. It's one set of rules for US ownership, another set of rules for everyone else.

        Hence why it's a valuable prospect to buy TikTok.

      • Unlikely. Both users using it will be pissed for sure, but neither of them matters.

      • Just wait until they try to ban Truth Social, it will start WWIII.

        Who would ever want to ban it? For Trump detractors, it's evidence. For Trump supporters, it's the word of God Almighty, strait from horse's mouth, so to speak. Apologies to horses, of course.

    • every time the US government wants to ban it?

      You may have cause and effect backwards. Every time the government talks about banning it, someone sees blood in the water (depressed price) and starts salivating at the prospect of purchasing it, then stuffing it with so many ads that it would make Youtube seem acceptable.

      Or it's a I rub your back, you rub my back, we have a capitalistic orgy on the corpses of the fallen type thing, like usually happens between the current owner class and the government.

    • Yeah, that guy.

      Frankly, it sounds like a match made in heaven to me. Sleazeball CEO buys sleazy social media company. With a little luck, he'd be as damaging to Tik Tok as he was to Activision/Blizzard.

  • That's pretty much that Putin did in Russia to Western companies that refused to play ball with his regime: forced them to sold to local "investors" at a fraction of the price. From McDonalds to Renault to Ikea.

  • This is how the usa dies (Score:3)

    by DMJC ( 682799 ) on Tuesday March 12, 2024 @03:24AM (#64308953)
    The USA is essentially saying only we can have tech monopolies. Everyone else has to pay us or else. This w will at some point lead to US tech companies being banned in China and domestic alternatives being built. America is no longer an open market player but a scared collapsing has been power.
  • How is that going to work? And it will take a very long time before it would actually manage to do it. And will they force Google/Apple to remotely delete it?
  • Oh, they’ll take your money,formally declare you the owner, and let you sit at the head of the table during board meetings. But the CCP party rep quietly sitting in the back corner taking notes has a different story to tell. He’s not gonna tell it in public though.

  • Shoulda bought it. Then it could be called KoTikTok.

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