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slt2021 2 months ago

only very few rich people can mobilize financial and political capital to pull off tiktok purchase.

Larry Ellison (since he is CIA/MIC friendly and tiktok is already running on Oracle cloud)

Zuck has too much conflict to acquire tiktok, but other oligarchs like Musk/bezos/gates can pull it off, given their recent meetings with Trump

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JumpCrisscross 2 months ago | parent [-]

> only very few rich people can mobilize financial and political capital to pull off tiktok purchase

Why do you assume only a natural person can buy TikTok? Why do you assume you need political capital?

The law doesn’t provide that much executive deference in enforcement.

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slt2021 2 months ago | parent [-]

Elon musk is an example of acquisition of global social network. Political capital is needed because the tiktok question is politicized heavily (national security as a reason).

Plus FTC will review the acquisition process as well.

Do you have a counter example?

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JumpCrisscross 2 months ago | parent [-]

> FTC will review the acquisition process as well

Why?

> Political capital is needed because the tiktok question is politicized heavily (national security as a reason)

This is entirely meaningless. You don’t need political capital to maintain the status quo.

> Do you have a counter example?

To your hypothetical? My example is the law. FACA is tightly defined. Bytedance needs to divest to a non-FAC to return to the status quo. Trump could do something else to fuck with them. But that’s true of anyone anywhere.

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slt2021 2 months ago | parent [-]

Hart-Scott-Rodino Improvements Act requires FTC to approve all large M&A deals + DoJ needs to do antitrust review

https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui...

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JumpCrisscross 2 months ago | parent [-]

HSR is incredibly routine and politically insulated. It’s closer to a filing than actual review.

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slt2021 2 months ago | parent [-]

except when the government decides to intervene and reject the transaction. See, this seems like routine, but ultimately it gives the government an option to cancel transaction they dont like and they can always cite some bogus reason like "national security" and use racist pretext like ethnicity of the CEO or whatever

	▲	JumpCrisscross 2 months ago \| parent [-]
		> it gives the government an option to cancel transaction they dont like Delay. It’s not a deferential review.