在《****》上，安德鲁·罗斯·索金和迈克·艾萨克采访了“十几个熟悉微软收购TikTok计划的人”，讲述了完整的“政治肥皂剧”：

What started as discussi*** about a **all investment morphed into a big, messy, political soap opera. Pushed by President Trump, who has ordered TikTok’s U.S. operati*** to be sold or to cease operating, ByteDance is now discussing selling parts of TikTok’s global operati*** to several potential bidders. And with so many groups jumping into the talks to get a piece of any deal, all are trying to drive their own interests and agendas.

有趣的是，今年7月，TikTok与微软就一笔小额投资的初步谈判已经演变成规模更大、无法控制的事情。据报道，TikTok**商ByteDance希望减少其面临的来自美国**的压力，而微软则希望将TikTok引入其Azure云计算服务。微软巧妙地避开了大多数针对其他主要科技公司的反垄断审查，在白宫压力加大之际，微软成为抢先者，占据了更大的业务份额：

ByteDance and Microsoft came to see an acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operati*** as a cleaner option, they added. Microsoft could allow TikTok to operate as a stand-alone unit, similar to how it had treated past large acquisiti***, such as its $2.5 billion acquisition of the company behind the video game Minecraft in 2014 and its $26 billion purchase of professional networking site LinkedIn in 2016.

现在，当然，谁都能猜到会发生什么。在特朗普总统下令在11月12日前**TikTok在美国的业务、甲骨文等其他公司成为潜在买家（尽管微软仍被认为是领跑者）以及TikTok因涉嫌缺乏正当程序而起诉特朗普**之间，现在还不清楚这部肥皂剧的下一个转折点是什么。《****》的报道很好地说明了我们是如何走到这一步的，值得一读。