Bill Gates: TikTok Purchase Is Poison Goblet, Trump’s Behaviour Is Bizarre

The Redmond-based company is negotiating a takeover of parts of the Chinese social network TikTok these days, and the envisaged deal is also causing discussions among former top Microsoft executives. Co-founder Bill Gates is skeptical that this is a good idea.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has rarely interfered in the day-to-day business of “his” group since he left as CEO and supervisory board chairman. But he cannot avoid the topic of TikTok and is repeatedly addressed in current interviews. This is also due to the fact that he still works in an advisory capacity for the Redmond group.

Speaking to Wired, Gates said, “Who knows what’s going to happen to this deal. But yeah, it’s a goblet of poison. Being big on social media is not an easy game.” The 64-year-old is not generally averse to TikTok or social media, he is especially skeptical about the framework conditions of the potential business, which is probably also what the poison goblet means.

Strange And Doubly Strange

Because the TikTok business has a political background, as US President Trump demands and controls the sale and also wants to collect a share of the takeover price. According to Gates, the whole process is “strange” and the thing about the stake is “doubly strange“. When asked if Gates is skeptical that Microsoft is getting into this (social media) game: “That may sound selfish, but I think it’s probably a good thing if more competition comes into play. But Trump Killing the only competitor is pretty bizarre. “

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His successor Steve Ballmer, on the other hand, has a different opinion: a week ago in an interview with CBNC he said that he thought a TikTok takeover would be a good idea because you always have to try new things in the consumer business. However, it must be noted here that it was Ballmer who thought the Nokia takeover was a good idea at the time.