Image: Microsoft / Protocol
Why Satya Nadella wants TikTok

Good morning! This Monday, we're digging into why Microsoft wants to buy TikTok, whether the Facebook ad boycott actually accomplished anything, and how you can now watch Netflix at 1.5x speed.
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OK, I admit it, my first thought upon hearing that Microsoft was interested in TikTok was "oh that'll be a disaster." This is the company that spent billions on Nokia and botched it, spent billions on Skype only to get slapped around the ring by Zoom, and has tried to figure out social countless times without ever even coming close. So sure: Spend billions on TikTok! What could go wrong?
This is all moving very fast, so here's an update on where we are:
The whole thing looks like Microsoft me-tooing its way into another industry, almost as if it saw the other four tech giants go in front of Congress and somehow decided that'd be a fun place to be. But the more I talk to people, the more I think Microsoft may actually have something here.
Whatever happens, we'll know by September 15, which is the date Microsoft gave as the deadline for closing discussions with ByteDance.
This is a legacy-defining move for Nadella, no matter how it shakes out. He's spent the entirety of his CEO tenure giving Microsoft investors what they want: a company focused on enterprise, on infrastructure, on the unsexy but profitable things that have made Microsoft a giant again. And it worked. He doesn't need to chase the hot new thing to make Microsoft more exciting — but he's earned the right to do so. And now, Nadella's chips are in the middle of the table.
In related news: The U.S. is reportedly looking at other Chinese companies, meaning WeChat and others could get The TikTok Treatment soon. But as Alex Stamos tweeted over the weekend, TikTok's the one to watch: "If the White House kills this we know this isn't about national security." ByteDance's founders, meanwhile, are reportedly planning to relocate to London, where they plan to build an HQ for the rest-of-the-world parts of TikTok that Microsoft isn't interested in. That could set the U.K. government up for another fight with Trump.
Even in the best-case scenario, July's Facebook ad boycott always had a tinge of opportunism. You can imagine the conversations: "Well, the pandemic's destroyed our ad budget, but what if I could tell you we could get a whole bunch of earned media and good PR by NOT spending money?"
We'll have to wait until Facebook's next earnings report to know exactly what kind of damage the boycott did – and Facebook did indicate there's at least some — but things are getting back to normal. And in a hurry.
This was always going to take longer than a month to play out, and from a publicity and scrutiny standpoint the boycott definitely had an effect: Mark Zuckerberg had to answer boycott questions during last week's hearing, for one thing.
I also suspect we're going to see a broader shift in how ad money gets spent in the next few quarters — Snap's already said the boycott "opened the door" with new advertisers — as some of those companies grapple with how reliant on Facebook they really are. But for now, Facebook came through a pretty ugly period relatively unscathed. As Facebook always seems to do.
Even before Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken climbed onto SpaceX's Crew Dragon and went to space, Elon Musk was saying the thing he worried most about was reentry. Well, reentry was yesterday, and it went damn near perfectly.
Yesterday was a big one for SpaceX and for NASA's Commercial Crew Program. As NASA's Jim Bridenstine said after the splashdown, the mission "has really just proven the business model for how we go forward, and how we do more than we've ever been able to do before."
Qualtrics' Work Different free virtual event, on August 12, will explore how successful organizations like Atlassian, Microsoft, the NBA, and many others are listening to and taking action on the feedback from their customers and employees to create a "new better" for their business. Register now at Qualtrics.com.
Mike Pompeo told Fox News what, exactly, the U.S. government sees as dangerous about Chinese apps:
Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook is already planning for what happens when Election Day gets weird:
The story of the week will be TikTok-Microsoft-Trump. But there's another acquisition maybe brewing: Nvidia is reportedly in "advanced talks" to buy Arm, as SoftBank tries to sell off the company to free up some cash.
Lots of phones coming this week: Google's likely announcing the new Pixel 4a today, and Samsung's next Galaxy Unpacked event is on Wednesday.
The Black Hat virtual conference started on Saturday, and runs through Thursday.
Earnings season continues! Match, Square, Roku, Uber, Dropbox, Nintendo and others all report this week.
I've never been a fan of listening to podcasts at 1.5x speed, because it makes everyone sound super agitated. But I get why people like it. And now you can do it on Netflix, controlling playback speed between 0.5x and 1.5x. It's a useful accessibility feature for people with hearing or sight impairments, though many Hollywood types hate it — because of course they do. Anyway, if someone forces you to sit through "The Kissing Booth 2," at least you can now do it in record time.
Qualtrics' Work Different free virtual event, on August 12, will explore how successful organizations like Atlassian, Microsoft, the NBA, and many others are listening to and taking action on the feedback from their customers and employees to create a "new better" for their business. Register now at Qualtrics.com.
Today's Source Code was written by David Pierce, with help from Shakeel Hashim. Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to david@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you tomorrow.
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