Will Larry Ellison's TikTok be safer than Chinese TikTok?
Yesterday it was announced that Larry Ellison’s Oracle, a16z, and venture capital firm Silver Lake would be buying up a new spinoff entity that would take the place of TikTok in America, with ByteDance — the current owners of TikTok — retaining a 20% stake. What will this new entity look like? It’s hard to say, but what is clear is that the Trump administration negotiated the deal with the Chinese government. It makes sense that an authoritarian country would want to tell a multi-billion dollar business precisely who is allowed to run it, who it’s allowed to sell to, and when it’s allowed to sell. However, it’s shocking that while the Trump administration abandons most financial regulation and pushes for global tariffs in the face of markets it claims aren’t free enough, it’s also sending government negotiators to help takeover a Chinese company on behalf of hyper-wealthy venture capitalists and the richest man in the world . E...