News Information and Media Site: Byers Market: The Week Ahead: What's next for TikTok; Mark Zuckerberg vs. Apple

August 31, 2020

By DYLAN BYERS in Los Angeles &

AHIZA GARCÍA-HODGES in San Francisco

Good morning. 🇺🇸 There are 64 days til the election. "The data says Biden should win," our colleague Alex Seitz-Wald reports. But "the data could be useless."

🎾 The U.S. Open starts today in New York, sans fans. The silence will be a factor.

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Moving the Market

The Week Ahead: 8.31.2020

🇺🇸 BIG IN THE BELTWAY

China is calling Trump's TikTok bluff. Beijing has placed new restrictions on the export of Chinese artificial intelligence technology, giving itself final say over any transfer of TikTok's AI and algorithms to a U.S. buyer. The move throws a wrench into President Donald Trump's plan to force the sale of TikTok's U.S. operations by Sept. 15, since AI and algorithms are TikTok's "secret sauce."

• "If Beijing blocks the sale," it would force Trump "to actually go through with restricting the app... potentially incurring the wrath of its legions of influencers and fans," NYT's Paul Mozur, Raymond Zhong and David McCabe write. "Ordering companies like Apple and Google to take down TikTok in app stores globally could also prompt further anger against the Trump administration and even lawsuits."

• Meanwhile, Microsoft and Walmart (yes, Walmart!) are still leading the race to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations, although the Oracle-led consortium is still in pursuit. Centricus and Triller have also put down a $20-billion offer, per Bloomberg. Both Google and Softbank are "no longer in the running," according to WSJ. Twitter's bid "has lost momentum."

• ⏰ There are 15 days to go til TikTok's sale deadline. ByteDance chief Zhang Yiming could decide on a buyer as early as this week, but any deal will need to appease both Washington and Beijing.

🌁 BIG IN THE BAY

Mark Zuckerberg is firing on Apple. In an all-staff call last week, details of which were leaked to BuzzFeed, the Facebook chief said Apple has "a unique stranglehold as a gatekeeper on what gets on phones." He also said that the App Store "blocks innovation, blocks competition" and "allows Apple to charge monopoly rents."

• The criticism, the latest in a decades-long feud between Facebook and Apple over issues of power and privacy, comes as the two sides are at odds over Facebook's Gaming app and Apple's plans to restrict Facebook's ad-targeting abilities on iPhones and iPads. Zuckerberg has also backed Epic Games in its war against Apple.

• Speaking of Epic Games vs. Apple, the iPhone maker has now officially terminated Epic's account from the App Store, meaning iPhone users can't download "Fortnite" or other Epic titles. Epic's Unreal Engine software will remain available to app makers, per last week's court ruling. The two sides meet again in court on Sept. 28.

• Finally, Facebook executive Ankhi Das is under fire once again for internal postings in which she supported the Hindu nationalist party and disparaged its main rival, WSJ's Jeff Horwitz and Newley Purnell report. The posts may conflict "with the company's pledge to remain neutral in elections around the world."

🗽 MOVING MANHATTAN

Warren Buffett is making noise. The Berkshire Hathaway chief, who has been (mostly) quiet during the coronavirus pandemic, bought 5-percent-plus stakes in each of Japan's five-biggest trading companies on Sunday, his 90th birthday. CNBC's Becky Quick puts the value at roughly $6.25 billion.

• The publishing industry is seeing "a surprising spike in sales for print books, a development that would normally be cause for celebration, but is now forcing publishers to scramble to meet surging demand," NYT's Alexandra Alter reports. "Unit sales of print books are up more than 5 percent over last year."

• And NYT's Ben Smith travelled to Provincetown, Mass., to interview Andrew Sullivan, "one of the most influential journalists of his generation." Unfortunately, Smith finds Sullivan unwilling to be "talked out of views on race that most of his peers find abhorrent."

🌴 TALK OF TINSELTOWN

Barack Obama, Bob Iger, Oprah and scores of other politicians, executives and stars are paying tribute to Chadwick Boseman, the "Black Panther" star who died at age 43 on Friday after a four-year battle with colon cancer. The tweet announcing Boseman's death was the most 'liked' tweet ever, according to Twitter.

• Warner Bros' "Tenet," the first Hollywood tentpole of the coronavirus era, grossed more than $53 million internationally across 41 markets over the weekend. It beat expectations, but still came in second to China's "The Eight Hundred," which grossed $69 million.

• ViacomCBS' MTV Video Music Awards, the first major U.S. awards show of the coronavirus era, took place last night. "Lady Gaga dominated... with a series of visually arresting outfits, masked performances and four wins, including artist of the year," per Reuters.