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Karl Bode / Techdirt: The TikTok deal is the worst of all possible outcomes, shifting ownership of TikTok to Trump's allies, while maintaining the supposed problematic links to China -
Sara Fischer / Axios: Internal memo: TikTok has signed a deal to sell its US unit; Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX will collectively own 45% of the US entity, and ByteDance will retain ~20% -
Financial Times: Memo: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew says ByteDance's US entities will retain direct control over core US revenue drivers, including ecommerce, ads, and marketing -
Bloomberg: Sources: ByteDance is on track for ~$50B profit in 2025 after generating a ~$40B net income in the first three quarters, surpassing its internal target for 2025 -
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter: Memo: the TikTok US deal is set to close on Jan. 22; terms include retraining the recommendation algorithm on US user data and Oracle overseeing data protection -
Paul Glynn / BBC: HarperCollins UK drops children's author and comedian David Walliams following allegations of inappropriate behavior toward young women -
Ken Vogel / @kenvogel: Politico ends its print edition after 19 years, as its early reliance on print ad revenue fades and its audience relies more on digital platforms -
Shane O'Neill / Washington Post: Q&A with Christopher Anderson, who photographed Trump's inner circle for VF: “My job is to ... draw on my experience as a journalist and photograph what I see” -
Blake Brittain / Reuters: Google sues data scraping company SerpApi for allegedly using hundreds of millions of fake search requests to access copyrighted material from Google products -
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Netflix acquires avatar creation platform Ready Player Me to let its subscribers carry their personas and fandoms across games; the startup raised $72M -
Jennifer Maas / Variety: The Kansas City Chiefs launch Foolish Club Studios, a first for an NFL team, to produce scripted and unscripted content that “might only be sports-adjacent” -
Kirsten Chuba / The Hollywood Reporter: TikTok's first awards show, held on December 18, handed out 14 awards, including Creator of the Year for Keith Lee; at the event, none of the screens worked -
Ryan Glasspiegel / Front Office Sports: Sources: Netflix will pay Barstool a yearly fee “in the eight figures” for its video podcasts; Fanatics has pitched WWE podcasts to Netflix which airs WWE Raw -
Wall Street Journal: Sources: Axel Springer has considered buying about a dozen media businesses in the US, including TED Conferences, TechCrunch, the 1440 newsletter, and more -
George Winslow / TV Tech: The National Association of Broadcasters launches a campaign to support live sports on free broadcast channels as more big games move to streaming services