The Data stories that Kotick appears to be ready for Donald Trump to imagine workplace earlier than taking additional motion, although. As you in all probability have heard, TikTok faces a looming deadline of January 19 to divest ties with its Chinese language guardian firm, ByteDance, or face a US ban underneath a legislation handed earlier this yr. With Trump set to take workplace on January 20, he may doubtlessly delay enforcement of the ban for 90 days, creating a possibility for Kotick and different potential consumers to pursue negotiations.
Kotick, who first expressed curiosity in TikTok earlier this yr, has not but made a proposal to ByteDance’s shareholders, insiders say. His timeline means that if the ban takes impact, even briefly, negotiations may speed up as soon as the brand new administration takes over.
In the meantime, ByteDance is difficult the legislation in court docket, searching for an emergency delay to permit time for a Supreme Courtroom enchantment or talks with the brand new administration.
However will ByteDance promote in any respect? To date, there are not any indications that it’s going to. The truth is, the corporate mentioned it will not promote.
Regardless of the authorized challenges, ByteDance hasn’t indicated a willingness to promote TikTok, and any sale would seemingly require approval from the Chinese language authorities. China’s export controls on software program algorithms, together with those TikTok makes use of to suggest movies, add additional complexity to any potential deal.
Nonetheless, Kotick believes his long-standing connections in China, developed throughout his tenure at Activision via partnerships with main Chinese language firms like Tencent and NetEase, give him a aggressive edge. He additionally has a private reference to ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, which may facilitate discussions.
Personally, I do not suppose these private connections will assist, if ByteDance and the Chinese language authorities resolve to not promote.