Today I'll tell the story of TikTok's acquisition in the US at a price 10 times below market value. For added drama, I've named each twist of the story:

🚀 Rise
From 2018 to 2019, the company entered the US market under the TikTok brand. For a quick start, they bought the app Musically and essentially replaced it with their own; the deal price was about $1 billion. They began investing several million dollars daily in marketing, taking the top spot in the App Store for downloads. Competitors tried to copy the mechanics but failed.

🥊 First Blow
In 2020, with Trump in power, he tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok to American companies by signing an executive order. The motive? "National security." In reality, it was a reluctance to accept a Chinese IT giant that had surpassed American social networks in popularity. In 2021, the Chinese social network became the most popular in the world.

⚖️ Concession to Preserve Business
2022-2023: The company spent billions on the "Texas" project — an attempt to move US user data to Oracle servers and distance itself from the parent holding.

💥 Final Act
April 2024: The US Congress passed a law requiring ByteDance to sell American TikTok within 9 months. Otherwise, a complete ban. Essentially, this is a forced sale under threat of business closure in the US market. The deadline was extended several times; the finale came last month — a forced sale at a price of about $14 billion, with a market valuation of $250 billion.

What do you think? Is this protection of interests or outright seizure? 👇

@dmitrii_ireshev_Agile_PMP #news #history