Latest / Connecting the Dots / TikTok’s U.S. Sale Approved and a Long Tech Standoff Ends

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TikTok’s U.S. Sale Approved and a Long Tech Standoff Ends · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfl Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Good morning, everyone. I'm Alex. And
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  I'm Morgan. Welcome to Connecting the Dots. We
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  are coming to you live from the Snarfl Solutions
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  Group studios here in Sacramento. It is Thursday,
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  January 22nd, 2026. And we are definitely pushing
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  through the first month of the new year. We really
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  are. And looking at the news this morning, it
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  feels like we're living through about three months
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  of headlines in a single day. It really does.
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  Between the geopolitical shifts and, well, the
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  literal weather shifts, there's a lot going on.
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  We have to start with the weather because the
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  map just looks wild today. Wild is, yeah, putting
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  it mildly. If you're listening from the southern
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  Rockies or the plains, you are right in the middle
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  of it. We are watching a major long -duration
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  winter storm, so this isn't just a quick dusting.
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  No, this is a multi -hazard event. We're talking
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  heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain, and it's stretching
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  all the way into the Mid -South. And the duration
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  is what makes it so dangerous. Yeah. It's just
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  dragging. And it's spreading east. So by the
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  weekend, this whole mess is going to be hitting
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  the Mid -Atlantic and New England. But the real
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  headline for me is what's coming in behind it.
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  The Arctic front. Exactly. If you're in the northern
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  plains or the upper Midwest, you really need
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  to be prepared for some serious cold. We're talking
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  dangerous wind chills, the kind of cold where
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  you really have to check your pipes and check
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  on your neighbors. Please take those warnings
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  seriously. Meanwhile, here in Sacramento... It's
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  a completely different story. Completely different
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  world. We started the day with some incredibly
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  dense fog. I actually had to crawl into the studio
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  this morning, but it's burning off now. And we're
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  looking at mostly sunny skies and a high of what,
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  57 degrees? 57, yeah, a stark contrast. It really
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  is. Now, despite all that weather chaos, The
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  financial markets seem to be feeling pretty optimistic.
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  They really do. It's looking like a green day
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  across the board. The Dow Jones closed at 49
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  ,550 .35. That's up about 348 points or roughly
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  0 .71%. And the S &P 500 is following that lead
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  though a little more cautiously. It closed at
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  6 ,922 .04, just taking up about 0 .11%. And
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  for crypto watchers, Bitcoin is holding the line,
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  hovering right around 89 ,493 hours. It's up
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  slightly for the day. But if you zoom out to
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  the weekly trend, it is still down a little bit.
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  So steady seems to be the vibe. It does, which
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  is surprising given the news we're about to get
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  into. It really is. But before we get into the
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  heavy hitting tech story of the day and it is
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  mean. All right, let's shift gears. Usually on
• 3:36
  the show, we grab our Morningstar report. That's
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  the Snarfle Tech article report. And we pick
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  three different stories to break down. But today,
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  the Morningstar is just completely dominated
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  by one single event. It feels like we've been
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  talking about this for years. It has been the
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  will -they -won't -they drama of the tech world.
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  It really has. So we're going to do a special
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  edition today. We're going to break this one
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  massive story down into three angles. The headline,
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  the fine print. And the so what? Because today,
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  Thursday, January 22 marks the end of the saga.
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  Let's jump in. Angle number one, the headline,
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  the saga ends today. OK, let's unpack this. For
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  what feels like an eternity, there has been this
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  looming ban over TikTok in the U .S. A source
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  of anxiety for 170 million users, for creators,
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  for businesses. Well, the anxiety is over. The
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  U .S. and China have officially signed off on
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  the deal to sell TikTok's U .S. business. And
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  the timing here is just incredibly dramatic.
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  The deal is set to close this week because today,
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  January 22nd, was the absolute deadline. The
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  deadline. The one set by the executive order.
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  They basically waited until the clock was at
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  zero before cutting the wire. Talk about cutting
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  it close. I mean, it really shows how intense
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  those negotiations must have been. But the headline
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  is clear. The ban is prevented. The app is staying
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  on your phone. But the big news isn't just that
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  it's staying, it's how it's staying. It's all
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  about who's buying it. Right. And it is a consortium
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  of mostly US investors. And the heavy hitters
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  leading the pack are two names we know very well.
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  Oracle and Silverlake. That's a fascinating pairing.
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  On one side, you've got Oracle, the infrastructure
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  giants. They have deep ties to the government.
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  They handle massive databases. And they've been
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  the cloud partner for TikTok for a while now
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  with that whole Project Texas thing. Exactly.
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  And on the other side, you've got Silver Lake.
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  These are the pros of private equity in tech.
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  They don't just buy companies to hold them. They
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  buy them to optimize them. They restructure Dell.
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  They've been involved in so many massive turnarounds.
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  So having them involved signals this isn't just
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  a political fix. It's a serious business play.
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  And it kind of removes the biggest sticking point
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  in U .S.-China relations right now. This tension
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  has been simmering for years. To finally see
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  the ink drying is... Significant. It is. But,
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  you know, headlines are easy. Oracle buys TikTok.
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  That fits on a bumper sticker. Yeah. But when
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  you look at the deal structure, it is infinitely
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  more complex than that. Which brings us perfectly
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  to our second angle, the fine print. Who actually
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  owns what now? Right. Because it's not as simple
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  as Oracle writing a check and getting the keys.
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  They are forming a completely new entity. OK.
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  It's going to be called TikTok, USDs, Joint Venture
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  LLC. Joint Venture LLC. That, uh... That sounds
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  like a legal compromise if I've ever heard one.
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  It describes exactly what it is. Now let's look
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  at the pie chart here, because this is where
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  the real negotiation happened. There are three
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  main slices. OK, lay it on me. Slice number one.
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  Slice number one is the new investors. They're
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  taking a 45 % stake in this new company. 45%.
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  And this group includes Oracle and Silver Lake,
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  which we mentioned. But there is another player
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  here that really caught my eye. MGX. MGX. That's
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  a name that kind of flies under the radar for
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  most people. It does, but it shouldn't. MGX is
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  a state -owned investment firm from the United
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  Arab Emirates. But here's the critical detail.
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  They're specifically focused on artificial intelligence.
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  Now that is interesting. Why bring in a UAE AI
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  firm for a social media app? Because TikTok is
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  an AI product. The 4U feed isn't just a list
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  of videos, it's one of the most sophisticated
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  recommendation engines on the planet. Good point.
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  So having MGX in the mix, Oracle, Silverlake,
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  and MGX each get a 15 % stake, it suggests the
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  investors see the future of this thing tied to
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  AI development, not just ad sales. That adds
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  a whole new layer to it. Okay, so that's the
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  45 % new money. What about the rest? The next
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  slice belongs to the existing investors. These
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  are affiliates of the global investment firms
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  that already put money into ByteDance years ago.
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  Ah, okay. They're rolling over their equity to
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  hold 30 .1 % of this new U .S. entity. So the
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  people who funded the Chinese parent company
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  originally are saying, we want to stay in the
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  game with the U .S. version. Precisely. They
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  are swapping their shares in the parent for shares
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  in the child, essentially. Got it. So we have
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  45 % new investors, 30 .1 % existing investors.
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  That leaves doing some quick math. Just under
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  20%. Exactly. ByteDance, the Chinese parent company,
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  retains a 19 .9 % stake in the U .S. business.
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  19 .9%. That feels like a very specifically engineered
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  number. It absolutely is. In regulatory terms,
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  staying under 20 % often keeps you in that minority
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  shareholder bracket. It satisfies the optics
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  that China no longer has control. So when you
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  add it all up? The new investors plus the existing
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  global investors control just over 80 % of the
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  U .S. assets. Bydance is very much the junior
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  partner here. And are there any other big names
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  in that investor pool? There are a few interesting
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  ones. We're seeing participation from Susquehanna
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  and Dragon Air. But one that stood out to me
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  is DFO. DFO. That's Michael Dull's family office.
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  OK, so let's pause there. A family office. What
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  does that actually mean for our listeners? How
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  is that different from a regular investment firm?
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  It's basically a private wealth management firm
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  for one ultra high net worth family. It's their
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  personal money, not a fundraise from other people.
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  So that's Michael Dell himself putting his personal
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  stamp on this. Yes, alongside Silver Lake, who
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  helped him take Dell private years ago. It's
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  a very tight circle of American tech royalty.
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  That is a lot of heavy hitters. So the big question,
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  what is this whole thing actually worth? That
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  is the multi -billion dollar question, isn't
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  it? The official price tag is still a bit murky.
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  They haven't released the final numbers. But
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  there are estimates. There are. Back in September,
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  U .S. Vice President J .D. Vance estimated the
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  unit's value at roughly $14 billion. $14 billion
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  for a platform with 170 million users. Some analysts
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  would call that a fire sale. Really? I mean,
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  if you look at the revenue per user, the engagement
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  time, people spend more time on TikTok than almost
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  anything else. $14 billion is arguably a steal.
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  But they're not just buying the revenue. They're
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  buying the political baggage. Exactly. It's a
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  fixer -upper. But the fix involves national security.
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  Which leads us to our third angle the so what
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  what does this mean for security for politics
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  and? The algorithm because at the end of the
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  day this was a national security mandate Not
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  just a business deal correct the new entity that
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  tick -tock usds joint venture LLC It has a specific
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  mission it is going to be an independent entity
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  that controls data protection content moderation
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  and algorithm security And how do we know it's
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  actually independent? What's the mechanism it
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  comes down to governance? The company will have
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  a new seven -member board of directors. Okay.
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  And the requirement that made this deal pass
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  muster is that the majority of that board must
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  be Americans. So American board, American majority
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  ownership, that checks the boxes for the government.
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  It's about control. It is. But there is one giant
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  mystery left in all of this. One black box that
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  we still haven't gotten a look inside. Let me
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  guess. The algorithm. The algorithm. That 4U
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  page magic that keeps everyone scrolling. It
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  was the main point of contention between the
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  US and China. Right, because China basically
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  classified recommendation algorithms as a national
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  security asset of their own. Yes. They updated
• 11:10
  their export control laws. They essentially said,
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  you can sell the car, but you can't sell the
• 11:15
  engine design. That is the perfect analogy. And
• 11:18
  what's fascinating here is... We don't know how
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  that was resolved. The source material explicitly
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  says it's unclear what specific negotiations
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  happened regarding the algorithm, even as the
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  deal is closing. That's wild. So the deal is
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  done, papers are signed, but we don't know if
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  the code itself was transferred or if it's just
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  being licensed. It's the biggest question mark.
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  If it's a licensing deal, that means the engine
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  is still technically Chinese IP just being rented
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  by the American company. But the new US entity
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  controls algorithm security. Which likely means
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  they control the safety filters, the moderation
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  rules, but the core mathematical model. We just
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  don't know. I suppose from a user perspective,
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  as long as the feed works, they won't care. But
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  from a sovereignty perspective, that distinction
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  matters. A lot. It matters immensely. And speaking
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  of politics, we should touch on the context here
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  because this is a rare moment of Well, bipartisan
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  alignment. Yeah, let's look at the timeline.
• 12:14
  This wasn't just one administration's project.
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  Not at all. If we look at the facts, former President
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  Biden signed the law back in 2024 that required
• 12:22
  this divestiture. He set the clock ticking. And
• 12:25
  then President Trump issued the executive order
• 12:27
  that set the final deadline for today. And he
• 12:30
  declared that this specific deal meets the requirements.
• 12:33
  So Biden signed the law. Trump enforced the deadline
• 12:35
  and approved the buyer. It's a continuation of
• 12:38
  policy across two very different administrations.
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  It really underlines how serious the U .S. government
• 12:43
  was about the data security side of things. They
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  were willing to push this right to the brink.
• 12:48
  Have we heard anything from the companies themselves
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  today? Usually with a deal this big you get a
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  flood of press releases, victory laps. Surprisingly
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  little. The sources say that Oracle The White
• 12:59
  House, Silver Lake, and even the Chinese embassy
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  did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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  Silence speaks volumes, doesn't it? It really
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  does. It suggests this was a grind right up to
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  the finish line. They probably just want to get
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  the ink dry and move on without rocking the boat.
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  So let's bring this back to the listener. What
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  does this mean for the average person listening
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  right now? Well, if you're a parent, it means
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  your kids aren't going to wake up tomorrow with
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  their favorite app gone. If you're a small business
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  that uses TikTok for marketing, you don't have
• 13:29
  to scramble for a new strategy. It's stability.
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  Stability is good. You know, thinking about this
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  new joint venture, it really highlights how interconnected
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  everything is. You have US heavyweights, a UAE
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  AI firm, and the original Chinese creators all
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  bound together in one American company. It's
• 13:45
  a complex web. And having Oracle involved is
• 13:49
  significant for the infrastructure side. Project
• 13:52
  Texas, that plan to move all U .S. data to Oracle
• 13:55
  servers, is now permanent. And Silver Lake, they're
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  not in this to lose money. Definitely not. They
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  see value. And at a $14 billion valuation, if
• 14:04
  that holds, they're betting that TikTok's growth
• 14:08
  in the U .S. isn't over yet. It'll be interesting
• 14:10
  to see if the user experience changes. You mentioned
• 14:13
  the board controls content moderation now. That's
• 14:15
  a key point. With a majority American board,
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  will we see shifts in what's allowed or boosted?
• 14:22
  Will the for you feed feel different in six months?
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  That's something we'll have to watch. Well, it's
• 14:27
  certainly a historic day for the internet. The
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  app that changed video is officially staying
• 14:31
  put. It is. And it's a reminder that even in
• 14:34
  a digital world, borders and regulations still
• 14:36
  matter. That is a deep thought for a Thursday
• 14:39
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  our second partner who helps keep this show going.
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  Treat your feet. So, just to recap the big news
• 15:33
  today, the TikTok ban is officially off the table.
• 15:37
  That's the headline. Oracle, Silver Lake, and
• 15:39
  their partners, including that interesting player,
• 15:41
  MGX, are the new stewards of the platform in
• 15:44
  the U .S. A major winter storm is making life
• 15:46
  difficult for a huge chunk of the country. Again,
• 15:49
  please stay safe out there, but the financial
• 15:51
  markets are holding steady. It's a day of mixed
• 15:53
  news, really. Bad weather. good market returns,
• 15:56
  and a resolution to one of the biggest tech dramas
• 15:58
  of the decade. And for real world relevance,
• 16:01
  this means business as usual for the millions
• 16:03
  of creators and businesses that rely on TikTok.
• 16:06
  No need to delete the app. You don't have to
• 16:08
  download an archive of your videos in a panic.
• 16:11
  You can just keep scrolling. And honestly, in
• 16:14
  this news cycle, business as usual is a pretty
• 16:17
  nice thing to hear. One less crisis to worry
• 16:19
  about. I couldn't agree more. Well, that wraps
• 16:22
  up our coverage of the big deal. We will be back
• 16:24
  tomorrow with our standard Morningstar lineup.
• 16:28
  Assuming no other apps get sold for billions
• 16:30
  of dollars overnight. In this environment, you
• 16:32
  never know. Thanks for tuning in to Connecting
• 16:35
  the Dots, everyone. We're here to help at Snarful,
• 16:37
  so reach out on our website if you have any more
• 16:39
  questions. Have a great Thursday. That's a wrap
• 16:44
  on today's top stories. Remember, tech doesn't
• 16:47
  have to be complicated, and we're here to help
• 16:49
  connect the dots. If you've got questions or
• 16:52
  want to learn more, visit us at snarfle .com.
• 16:56
  Thanks for listening, and we'll catch you next
• 16:58
  time.