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TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company
- Ganz7 6y agoTwo days after they filed the lawsuit https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/24/tiktok-sues-the-u-s-government-over-its-forthcoming-ban/?guccounter=1 https://techcrunch.com/2020/08/24/tiktok-sues-the-u-s-govern...
- gumby 6y agoI met him a few times when he was at Disney and was impressed by him. Wonder what he will do now. (actually Disney as a company impresses me even though I don’t like the product).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- asdff 6y agoWhat product? Disney is practically a sovereign country.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- echelon 6y agoMovies formulated for mass appeal and merchandising. Theme parks that must remain open. A back catalog of tens of thousands of movies made since 1924 exclusively available through your Disney+ membership. Increasingly, all of American pop culture, super heroes, and sci-fi mythos. It's a bland brand, but I'm not sure Netflix is any better with their willingness to fund shows only as long as the cost to viewer ratio is low. I really want to disrupt these hulking media buffet companies.
- randomsearch 6y agoStrong agree on Netflix - for streaming in the UK I use Sky Cinema and it's on another level.
- vin047 6y agoIt's been a long time since I've had a look at Sky; I was just about to comment on how good the offering is on NowTV's Sky Cinema Pass... until I realised that it only included movies. For a similar price with Netflix you get movies + TV shows. Granted that the selection of movies on Sky Cinema do seem better, but if you're a fan of both then its still hard to beat Netflix's offering
- randomsearch 6y agoYou can also get Sky's boxsets etc via NowTV. And yep it's 2-3x the price in total, but my goodness is it worth it. Especially in lockdown, paying £15 for a month's high quality TV and film is great value.
- maps7 6y agoWhat did he do to impress you?
- gumby 6y agoHe was a clear thinker and not a jerk (at least by Hollywood or Bay Area standards). And he got Disney plus done quickly and successfully which I wouldn’t have thought was a big deal had I not seen how poorly others have done.
- data4lyfe 6y agoI'm confused on why he's leaving. Is the political scope of the role too much for him and/or is this not the role he intended to occupy?
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- ipnon 6y agoWhat's your annual rate for being caught in the middle of a geopolitical superpower dispute?
- jjeaff 6y agoA few million. But that number goes way up once I've banked a few million. This guy presumably has plenty.
- tomc1985 6y agoA few billion, at least for those kind of stakes
- coliveira 6y agoNonsense, politicians get into much more trouble for way less than that. He just doesn't know how to handle pressure - which is what he is paid well to do. Unacceptable.
- dcsan 6y agoit's a different role. he signed on to be a media exec and cut licensing deals. suddenly he's in the middle of a trade war and politics with some of the worst people on the planet. "fine people on both sides"
- Taek 6y agoI'll stick it out as long as you 10x my networth every year
- ffggvv 6y agoreally bad timing for him. wonder what’s next. as i understand he was pretty high at disney and left when he was passed over for the ceo role
- tasoeur 6y agoEven if Kevin was to stay as TikTok CEO, he would have to leave his role as the COO of ByteDance. It’s totally understandable that he would want to leave given the reduced scope (no more head of a global company etc.). What seems suspicious however is why he would leave prior to an acquisition. As a CEO, that won’t reflect too good on his reputation... so there’s gotta be a tradeoff somewhere. Wait & see!
- TMWNN 6y agoHe left Disney after being passed over for CEO. Although (assuming that Microsoft or a comparable company buys TikTok) he would likely stay on as its head, with potential to rise within should he do a good job, Mayer is one of the very few people who's already been in that exact spot (or higher; Disney might have a smaller market cap than Microsoft, but in every other way they are equals in their global reach and ambition), so to speak, so it's understandable that he wouldn't want to go through it again. That said, surely his contract has provisions for a payout should his company gets acquired. Wouldn't leaving before any transaction close void that?
- throwaway4good 6y agoBecause TikTok is winding down its operations in the US and moving its international operations to Europe.
- throwaway4good 6y agoHere are the rumours - London or Frankfurt: http://en.people.cn/n3/2020/0815/c90000-9721956.html http://en.people.cn/n3/2020/0815/c90000-9721956.html https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12295304/boris-johnson-clashes-donald-trump-tiktok-london-hq/ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12295304/boris-johnson-clashes... I am guessing it will be official soon.
- 0xfffafaCrash 6y agoIt might hurt his reputation to have left at a time like this, but I imagine not necessarily any worse than his reputation would wind up being if he stuck around at the helm for a pawn in a game between the US and Chinese governments. If an acquisition does actually materialize, which still seems to be a very big if, it would be under existential duress, which is not a favorable negotiating position. Despite its popularity and success, TikTok has been pulled into a completely different arena now, and its unclear that there are winning moves for it to make which aren’t contingent on a sudden shift in politics.
- ponker 6y agoI think that with court proceedings and media stunts TikTok can run out the clock to November 5th at which point the cat will forget about this ball of yarn and go off in search of some other laser pointer.
- denkmoon 6y agoFew million isn't worth being poisoned/cranially penetrated.
- Kaveren 6y agono american tech ceo is getting killed because of a minor dispute like this why does everyone on HN think we're in some low budget spy movie
- ulfw 6y agoSpoon-fed propaganda does that to people. It’s easy to fall into a black or white binary “good” vs “evil” trap, which clouds peoples judgement and makes them overlook the nuances that are in every dispute.
- tomc1985 6y agoWhat makes you think that? The Russian government just poisoned another opposition thinker, these things are not beyond the pale. North Korea hired a couple of pretty girls to kill a renegade brother or somesuch in public. China has disappeared people over just a few wrong words If I were in that position I'd make sure I have at least a couple bodyguards, and good ones at that
- insidepgsmind 6y agoWorlds of difference between those countries and functioning democracies.
- ohwellnevermind 6y agoJeffery Epstein seems to be a similar situation.
- tomc1985 6y agoKim Jong-nam was assassinated in public, at an airport in South Korea. It's not like these folks are limited to their own borders. How many hours is a transpacific flight again? No doubt that "not pissing off the Chinese government" is one of the many reasons Mayer won't be speaking freely about the U.S. selloff in public.
- afrojack123 6y agoIf TikTok gets purchased, all its US employees are going to get a pay cut.
- lmcp 6y agoTo me this reads as tiktok definitely being acquired. And as they negotiate with either Microsoft or Oracle it is becoming clear to Mayer that he will have more oversight and a greater focus on profitability over growth which isn't what he signed up for.
- stingrae 6y agoWhat in the world is Oracle going to do with TikTok? For both of these companies it seems like such a strange acquisition.
- threeseed 6y agoa) It will be rewritten in Java and forced to run on Oracle Cloud. b) Oracle Field Sales will be compensated by how many times they can mention TikTok to middle managers on the golf course. c) Endless ads about how TikTok is powered by Oracle Cloud.
- throwaway4good 6y agoIf I were TikTok I would move my international operations to a European country that was friendly to me and then wait until the anti-China sentiment in the US settled and then try again. Rather that than force-selling the US part at a bargain price. Europe would love a social media giant that could match those of the US. And just behaved better than the US ones when it came to taxes and data privacy ...
- schuke 6y agoIf the US is really after TikTok that would probably be futile? Like when they’re after ZTE and Huawei.
- throwaway4good 6y agoIt is clearly futile in the current environment but who knows in a couple of years. Unlike maybe Huawei, TikTok tried to play ball with the US. As far as I can see they were aiming to spin off the international part of TikTok as a US firm, IPOed on the US stock markets. That is why they hired Americans as CEO, developers, managers, board members ...
- 0xfaded 6y agoThe sentiment in Europe right now is fear over Chinese money purchasing European companies piecemeal. European valuations are kept artificially low by, well, it seems just by being in Europe. With companies struggling from covid, the usual lack of European leadership on any sort of stimulus, and the US not in a position to bail the European economy out again a la 2008, there are a lot of buying opportunities. Currently the sentiment is mainly confined to political and business circles, but I wouldn't be surprised if it overflows into the general public once jobs currently on wage support start disappearing next year.
- throwaway4good 6y agoIt would be TikTok International setting up headquarters in Europe - not buying a European company - it would be a big boost for the local economy. But it is true. There is anti-China sentiment in Europe too ... but if you asks eg. the Germans ... who would you rather spite: Trump or China? They probably would go ... hmmm ... though one ... Trump!
- koonsolo 6y agoAs a European I find this whole story very confusing. A president that can just force a specific company on very short notice to shut down operation, is very concerning. What is even more concerning is that a lot of people here tend to agree because of the China thing. If it is that important, why is there no law that enforces this?
- yibg 6y agoAs much as the US government would like people to believe otherwise, things like laws goes out the window pretty quickly when it comes to geopolitics. This isn't a new thing in the US either. Maybe just more people are realizing it recently.
- eecc 6y agoThe farce at the UN Security Council that Colin Powell made years ago spelled that out pretty clearly already. If anything, it somewhat formally respected the role of the UN, but the brazen lying asserted how the USA wasn’t worried at all of the consequences
- iKevinShah 6y agoI am neither a US Citizen or a resident BUT this is not only about "geopolitics" but more about National Security too. There's literally a law in China which states you have to provide "crucial information for review" to the government if asked. You(the firm operating in China) cant deny that. Period. That itself is scary, regardless of whether or not politics / geopolitics is involved. The law (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Internet_Security_Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Internet_Security_Law) : > Regarding the requirements for spot-checks and certifications, international law firms have warned that companies could be asked to provide source code, encryption, or other crucial information for review by the authorities, increasing the risk of this information being lost, passed on to local competitors, or used by the authorities themselves.
- dragonwriter 6y ago> There's literally a law in China which states you have to provide "crucial information for review" to the government if asked. You(the firm operating in China) cant deny that. Period. Despite having a Chinese parent, isn't it the case that TikTok itself does not operate in China?
- fqye 6y agoI mean, to steer a company through power struggle between the US and China is very interesting and could be a big plus for future high profile jobs. Unless he doesn't have much a role at the table and feel hurt. I assume it is the case.
- gigatexal 6y agoSo we're fighting wars by meddling with companies now of other countries?
- pedroma 6y agoConsidering we've been retaliating tit for tat with China for awhile now, it's inevitable we'd start blocking their tech companies like they've done to Google, FB, etc. I see the list of blacklisted Chinese tech companies increasing in the near future.
- jld89 6y agoWhat I still don't understand is why European governments haven't made tit for tat measures against China in corporate law. Why do we allow free market access to chinese companies when they don't? Are we crazy? Why not give the keys to our factories/companies while we are at it?
- unityByFreedom 6y agoBecause we're an open society. We're certainly not handing over any keys. There is more to capitalist democracies than intellectual property.
- jld89 6y agoSure we can be an open society, it's all about proportion and equality. Why should we continue to let them buy our companies freely when they haven't changed their draconian corporate laws? We have been open, we gave them the opportunity to reciprocate, they refused, then we close up shop for them. It is only fair. We are an open society, but we are not idiots, (at least I like to think so...).
- yorwba 6y agoMost of the Chinese market is already freely available to European companies, so the "tit for tat" measures tend to be small as well, just raising tariffs on products of companies receiving government subsidies or whatever.
- readarticle 6y agoLow growth prior to COVID, a weightier dependence on trade with China, and the lack of anything slightly resembling a unified foreign policy don’t leave much room to maneuver as a whole, nevermind on their own.
- zorked 6y agoThe World Trade Organization allows for asymmetrical relations like that for developing countries. Same reason why we don't demand a level playing field between sheep and wolves... China is a poor, third-world country.
- EE84M3i 6y agoI'm confused about why this is big news. The executive order bans (to-be-defined) transactions with ByteDance and subsidiaries with the carve-out of "notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted before the date of this order." Wasn't it going to be required by law for Kevin Mayer (as an American) to leave TikTok or become a lame-duck CEO? If he didn't leave, he couldn't accept, for example, new stock grants. Working for TikTok and holding an American passport is a colossally dumb idea.
- coliveira 6y agoThe only data that TikTok is stealing is the latest hiphop dance moves by teenagers! This big hoopla was manufactured to paint Chinese companies as some kind of monster. Completely absurd. I'm really surprised how a bunch of otherwise intelligent people in this forum can follow for the disinformation campaign waged by Trump to paint him as a "protector of American freedom".
- UweSchmidt 6y agoThe owners of these popular social apps directly control millions, billions of people by presenting them with the content they decide and taking all the data about each individual, with stunning implications. The only ridiculous thing is that this is happening unregulated.
- 72deluxe 6y agoConversely, your entire statement could be said about Google or Facebook surely??? Thought-provoking for sure. I suppose we are all bystanders in these commercial battles and I am not sure we all win. Sorry times.
- coliveira 6y agoThis is exactly what Facebook is already doing, in a far larger scale!