They've actually been in discussions to purchase for months now. But the U.S. government comes along and says, actually, you better complete it soon, or the value of the U.S. business will be zero.
I believe the gravity of this hasn't been appreciated yet.
An open mind that considers other viewpoints is one that can outplay opponents. Literal thinkers can be led in circles.
But they didn't. What's happening to them is similar to what happened to Grindr.
If they want access to the US market, perhaps they should take that up with their own government.
Your idea that MS gets a stronger position is a bit orthogonal to what may be the real hold up. Insofar as your idea assumes both that ByteDance cares, and that MS wants Tik Tok, then your idea is sound.
But I'm no longer certain either is true. Is ByteDance a business? Or an out of date intelligence front that their people are simply winding down? Does MS want Tik Tok? Or has Trump decided that's the best outcome for him, and pressured MS to buy Tik Tok?
Is it time to consider the very real possibility that MS doesn't even want Tik Tok? And never really did?
Also, MS is being a little naive here as well. We are in uncharted territory, but did they think they would get away with tap dancing for a few months to pacify Trump and then coming back and saying, "Sorry we can't get it done"?
TikTok has a huge amount of use, right, it is hugely popular? Microsoft in general is known to be trying to get into "social" more, for obvious reasons. You can make a conspiracy story about anything, but I think the occam's razor answer is that, yes, Microsoft actually wants TikTok. Doesn't it appear to be a very valuable property matching MS's known acquisition strategies? Why wouldn't they want it, there's nothing odd about them wanting it that needs some other mystery explanation, is there?