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Comment by tasoeur | Hacker News Reader

Even 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!

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If I had to read between the lines, his leaving is signalling that Bytedance is digging into their position selling the minimum number of assets (US + 4 eyes) and the negotiations are reaching the crucial stages.

Previously there was still hope of selling TikTok globally.

More importantly it seems that Kevin/TikTok has no influence at all in the negotiations - it is purely between Bytedance and the relevant companies. This is probably the real reason he's leaving - he's in no position to shape the deal and it isn't looking good for him right now.

his usefulness expired, and now HQ want to control the nego directly. Just like any foreigner used as a local hired gun.

This is something that has totallly escpaed the western world. This appointment was just a pr move, similar to hugo bara and xiaomi and many other ceremonial CEOs at chinese compnaies. it never ends well.

I agree with this, but it doesn't make sense to eject him at this point in time if that was the case. So the decision to leave must have been from Kevin.

It 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.

I think he's toast. Who would want to work for a guy who has a track record of jumping ship in the face of trouble?

I'm not sure you can blame him personally for the troubles... I mean it was pretty difficult to forsee, and almost impossible to mitigate a geopolitical war over your company...

I'm definitely not blaming him. I'm observing that he's calling it quits instead of helping his team weather the storm, and that as an employee, I would look disfavorably upon a manager who has previously left their team in the lurch when they most needed a leader.

While this definitely is valid, TikTok has other strong leaders including Vanessa Pappas the GM for TikTok US who will be taking over. This seems like a rationale decision on Kevin's part, with a strong leader in succession who is more than capable of seeing through what comes next if TikTok US splits off from the global entity.

If there wasn't a strong leader already to take his place then it would be a very negative decision on Kevin's part.

Knowing when to persevere and when it's time to quit is an underrated skill.

He 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?

Because TikTok is winding down its operations in the US and moving its international operations to Europe.

Here are the rumours - London or Frankfurt:

http://en.people.cn/n3/2020/0815/c90000-9721956.html

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12295304/boris-johnson-clashes...

I am guessing it will be official soon.

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