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Amazon is reportedly joining a long list of potential suitors to buy TikTok with last-minute bid

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Amazon has put in a bid to purchase TikTok, a Trump administration official said Wednesday, in an eleventh-hour pitch as a U.S. ban on the platform is set to go into effect Saturday.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Amazon offer was made in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

The New York Times first reported on the bid.

President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day gave the platform a reprieve, barreling past a law that had been upheld unanimously by the Supreme Court, which said the ban was necessary for national security.

Under the law, TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance is required to sell the platform to an approved buyer or take it offline in the United States. Trump has suggested he could further extend the pause on the ban, but he has also said he expects a deal to be forged by Saturday.

Amazon declined to comment. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The existence of an Amazon bid surfaced as Trump was scheduled on Wednesday to meet with senior officials to discuss the coming deadline for a TikTok sale.

Although it’s unclear if ByteDance plans to sell TikTok, several possible bidders have come forward in the past few months. Among the possible investors are the software company Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone. Oracle announced in 2020 that it had a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global after securing its business as the app’s cloud technology provider.

In January, the artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI presented ByteDance with a merger proposal that would combine Perplexity’s business with TikTok’s U.S. operation. Last month, the company outlined its approach to rebuilding TikTok in a blog post, arguing that it is “singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly.”

“Any acquisition by a consortium of investors could in effect keep ByteDance in control of the algorithm, while any acquisition by a competitor would likely create a monopoly in the short form video and information space,” Perplexity said in its post.

The company said it would remake the TikTok algorithm and ensure that infrastructure would be developed and maintained in “American data centers with American oversight, ensuring alignment with domestic privacy standards and regulations.”

Other potential bidders include a consortium organized by billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, which recently recruited Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a strategic adviser. Investors in the consortium say they’ve offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikTok’s U.S. platform. Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com, says he too has organized a consortium and is offering ByteDance more than $30 billion for the platform. Wyoming small business owner Reid Rasner has also announced that he offered ByteDance roughly $47.5 billion.

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not do so if asked. The U.S. government has not provided evidence of that happening.

Trump has millions of followers on TikTok and has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters.

During his first term, he took a more skeptical view of TikTok and issued executive orders banning dealings with ByteDance as well as the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Billy Corgan on launching his new podcast, the future of music and the ‘shocking shift’ brewing with AI

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6 products set to get more expensive under Trump’s tariffs: cars, groceries and more

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President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries this week and that will result in significant price shocks to U.S. consumers, economists and analysts say. Everything from clothes to iPhones to homes to cars could be impacted—not to mention retirement accounts as result of a meltdown in the stock market. (Scroll down to see the list).

The Yale Budget Lab estimates that the average U.S. household will pay $3,800 more annually as a result of levies announced this week and earlier in the year, which include a 10% universal tariff along with specific additional tariffs for 60 countries that face higher rates under an unusual formula. These come in addition to earlier tariffs placed on Canada, China, Mexico, automobiles, and steel and aluminum tariffs. The U.S. economy at large could lose $100 billion to $180 billion annually.

The right-leaning Tax Foundation says the tariffs are the largest tax increase on Americans consumers since the 1980s. “You can view it as a tax on consumers,” said Ashish Shah, chief investment officer of public investing at Goldman Sachs, at a media event Thursday. Consumers are “going to bear the cost of higher goods.”

It’s too soon to know exactly how the tariffs, which are taxes on goods imported from other countries, will affect prices, or even what the final rates will end up being. Trump has left the door open to negotiations. But here are some financial analysts and economists predictions for price increases as things stand now.

1. Groceries

The high price of eggs was a salient issue during the presidential election, and Trump said he would bring down prices on day one of his presidency. With the announced tariffs, not only will prices not drop, but the cost of many other perishable groceries will likely increase before the end of the month, experts say. Around 15% of the U.S.’s overall food supply is imported, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Prices for produce like avocados, bananas, grapes, and melons are all expected to rise, as are the prices for items including beef, cheese, chocolate, coffee, olive oil, seafood, and more. Fresh produce is expected to see a higher increase, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

2. Cars

Even without Trump’s tariffs, car prices have spiraled so high as to be unaffordable for many. The average price for a new car hit $49,500 in Q1 2025, according to CarGurus. Meanwhile, new vehicles priced under $30,000 accounted for just 13% of inventory, compared to 37% in Q1 2020.

With tariffs, the average list price could increase by over $3,300 to approximately $52,800, according to a CarGurus analysis. Meanwhile, the share of listings priced under $30,000 would decline even more, while vehicles priced above $50,000 would increase by 15%. The Yale Budget Lab puts the average expected increase even higher, at $4,000.

“I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American cars,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker last week.

Even used cars aren’t immune. The tariffs will likely increase repair costs, because many components are sourced from other countries.

3. Homes

Homes, already historically expensive and priced out of reach for many buyers, would rise dramatically under universal tariffs—builders estimate the average home cost could increase by $9,200, according to the March 2025 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.

That’s because many of the supplies used to build homes are imported from other countries. For example, the U.S. imported 11.8 billion board feet of softwood lumber from Canada in 2024, which is a primary component in home building, according to the NAHB.

NAHB also notes that the cost of many other components of homes, including appliances, will increase. “NAHB estimates that approximately 7.3% of all goods used in new residential construction originated from a foreign nation in 2024.”

While Trump has said the goal is for companies to produce more goods and items domestically, experts say doing so will take years—if not decades. And there are many items that the U.S. simply cannot get or produce domestically, like all of that Canadian lumber.

“NAHB has urged the president to reconsider his directive to impose tariffs on Canadian, Mexican and Chinese goods, given the long lead time and significant production capacity needed to create additional domestic supply,” the organization says.

4. Clothing

The tariffs “disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with apparel prices rising 17% under all tariffs,” according to the Yale Budget Lab.

Leather products and apparel are expected to increase 18.3% and 16.9%, respectively, overall, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

5. Alcohol

Booze prices are likely to increase since the U.S. imports large amounts of wine from countries in the European Union, Australia and New Zealand. It also imports beer from Canada, Mexico and Europe.

As with other items in the list, the scope of the price increases will depend on the producers, what country they are being imported from, and how much of the cost increase they pass onto U.S. consumers. This includes at restaurants and bars—consumers’ nights out just got more expensive.

6. iPhones and other technology

Apple produces most iPhones in China, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. The “reciprocal” tariff placed on the country will send the cost sky-rocketing by as much as 43%, according to analysts. Other Apple products—including iPads, Apple Watches, and Airpods—will face similar increases.

Apple isn’t the only tech company that will be hard hit. Most rely on products from countries like Taiwan, Vietnam, and China. Those countries have been hit with tariffs of 32%, 34%, and 46%, respectively.

Tariffs won’t affect everyone equally

Experts say low-income families will feel the cost of the increases more acutely than other socioeconomic groups, as the price of basics like food and clothing rise.

“Tariffs burden households at the bottom of the income ladder more than those at the top as a share of income,” Yale’s Budget Lab notes.

Historically, tariffs have resulted in higher prices and reduced quantities of goods and services for business and consumers, according to the Tax Foundation. That has resulted in lower income, reduced employment, and lower economic output in the past.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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Vimeo CEO says he wasn’t allowed to use adverbs when he was working at Amazon—here’s why he thinks it helps companies to not ‘lose their way’

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  • Philip Moyer says his stint at Amazon was one of the most impactful of his career, in part due to the company’s emphasis on customers over shareholders.

Vimeo’s new CEO, Philip Moyer, has been around the block among the biggest tech companies.

While he most recently led Google’s applied AI engineering team, his career included a 15-year stint as a general manager in sales and technology at Microsoft and two years at Amazon’s financial services. The latter experience was the most “instructive,” he admits, and it centered around a unique policy against using adverbs.

But the reason is more logical than you may think.

“When we would write press releases, we weren’t allowed to use adverbs,” Moyer tells Fortune. “We had to actually not talk about the features of our products. But instead, the problems we were solving for customers, and I would tell you that it was a really instructional reset in the language that I had to use.”

Corporate speak can cause companies to ‘lose their way’

Amazon has long been known for its unique leadership practices, such as a “two pizza rule” that defines small team size, as well as 16 principles like “bias for action” and “disagree and commit.” However, the company’s emphasis on customer value—versus shareholder value—is what most impressed Moyer. A failure to focus on the customer can be “one of the most dangerous things” for a company, he says.

“When they bring in outside consulting organizations, they talk in corporate speak, or they talk in terms of numbers as opposed to problems and people, I think that’s when companies lose their way,” Moyer adds.

He’s brought his lessons with him in his new role as chief executive at Vimeo. While the video-sharing platform was heading down a path of decline last year, Vimeo is now on track for double-digit growth by the end of the year, Moyer says.

How to get ahead in the business world, according to Vimeo’s CEO

As now the leader of an $800 million company, Moyer learned many of his lessons the hard way, and he has advice for future business leaders:

“First and foremost, do not be anxious,” Moyer says. “They’re going to do amazing as long as they do the work.”

He also adds that it’s important to remember that despite any perception, no enterprise is created as easily as you may think.

“Every company, every great AI unicorn, any company I’ve ever worked for was never the overnight success that it appears in the press release. It’s always a 10-year journey,” he says.

Take OpenAI, for example—one of the fastest-growing companies in the world. The artificial intelligence startup did not explode in popularity until 2023, thanks in part to its success with ChatGPT. However, OpenAI was founded in late 2015, and its visionaries, like Sam Altman, were likely working on the concept years prior.

Those who are willing to put in the hard work, even when it may go unnoticed at first, will come out ahead on the other side, Moyer adds.

“You can do a lot of work in the dark—a lot of work that people don’t see—but as long as you’re doing the work, you ultimately will be successful in the thing that you’re working on.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com



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