By Mike Isaac and Andrew Ross Sorkin

迈克·艾萨克(Mike Isaac)和安德鲁·罗斯·索金(Andrew Ross Sorkin)

SAN FRANCISCO — When Microsoft began talking this summer with popular video app TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, no one had any intentions of pursuing a blockbuster deal.

旧金山— 微软今年夏天开始与流行的视频应用程序TikTok及其中国母公司ByteDance进行交流时，没有人有意进行重磅交易。

With tensions swirling between the United States and China, along with the complexities of running a social media company, any large acquisition appeared too treacherous to navigate. So Microsoft discussed taking a small stake in TikTok and becoming one of the app’s minority investors, said four people briefed on the conversations.

随着美国和中国之间紧张局势的加剧，以及经营一家社交媒体公司的复杂性，任何大型收购似乎都太危险了，难以驾驭。 因此，有四人在交谈中作了简短介绍，因此微软讨论了在TikTok中购买少量股份并成为该应用程序的少数投资者之一。

Even a small deal would be a win-win, the thinking went.

这个想法就算是一小笔交易也是双赢的。

For Microsoft, a minority investment would potentially bring TikTok over to using its Azure cloud computing service, immediately making the app one of Microsoft’s biggest cloud clients, said the people, who declined to be identified because the details are confidential. (TikTok has been using Google’s cloud computing services to power its videos.)

知情人士说，对微软来说，一笔很小的投资就有可能使TikTok完全使用其Azure云计算服务 ，从而使该应用程序立即成为微软最大的云客户之一。该消息人士拒绝透露身份，因为细节是机密的。 (TikTok一直在使用Google的云计算服务来为其视频提供动力。)

For ByteDance and TikTok, a deal with Microsoft could help propel the valuation of the app’s business outside China to as high as $80 billion, the people said. It would also provide TikTok with the endorsement of a blue-chip American company to mollify the Trump administration, which had called TikTok’s Chinese ties a national security threat.

知情人士说 ， 对于ByteDance和TikTok，与微软的交易可能有助于推动该应用程序业务在中国境外的估值高达800亿美元。 这也将为TikTok提供一家美国蓝筹公司的认可，以安抚特朗普政府，后者称TikTok与中国的关系为国家安全威胁。

Yet what started as discussions about a small investment morphed into a big, messy, political soap opera. Pushed by President Donald Trump, who has ordered TikTok’s U.S. operations to be sold or to cease operating, ByteDance is now discussing selling parts of TikTok’s global operations to several potential bidders. And with so many groups jumping into the talks to get a piece of any deal, all are trying to drive their own interests and agendas.

然而，从有关小额投资的讨论开始，演变成一场大型，凌乱的政治肥皂剧。 在已下令出售TikTok美国业务或停止运营的唐纳德·特朗普总统的推动下，字节跳动目前正在讨论将TikTok全球业务的部分业务出售给数名潜在竞标者。 由于有如此多的小组加入谈判以达成任何协议，所有人都在努力推动自己的利益和议程。

Apart from Microsoft, the bidders include Oracle, the enterprise software company, the people with knowledge of the talks said. Bankers and investors, some authorized and some simply trying to gin up a deal, have also called Netflix, Twitter and Verizon about buying TikTok, they said, though it is unclear if those companies have a genuine interest in an acquisition. Microsoft, with the deepest resources and a market value of more than $1.6 trillion, still appears the furthest along for now, the people said.

知情人士称，除微软外，竞标者还包括企业软件公司Oracle 。 他们说，银行家和投资者，有些被授权，有些只是试图达成一笔交易，他们也打电话给Netflix，Twitter和Verizon关于收购TikTok的消息，尽管目前尚不清楚这些公司是否对收购有真正的兴趣。 知情人士说，拥有最丰富资源，市值超过1.6万亿美元的微软，似乎仍然是迄今为止最遥远的。

The sale scenarios on the table are head-spinning, the people said, because all of the parties — ByteDance, TikTok, their investors and the bidders — want to get the most out of any deal. The talks have covered everything from selling just TikTok’s North American operations all the way to every part of TikTok, minus ByteDance’s Chinese-only video app Douyin, they said.

知情人士说，桌上的出售情况令人头疼，因为所有交易方(ByteDance，TikTok，他们的投资者和投标人)都希望从交易中获得最大收益。 他们说，谈判涵盖了从仅出售TikTok的北美业务到TikTok的每个部分的所有内容，但不包括ByteDance的中文视频应用程序Douyin。

A deal price is unclear, though numbers have ranged from $20 billion to $50 billion depending on what parts of TikTok will be sold, the people said. The talks are fluid, and no deal may ultimately be reached.

知情人士称，交易价格目前尚不清楚，尽管交易金额在200亿美元至500亿美元之间，具体取决于将出售TikTok的哪一部分。 谈判是不稳定的，最终没有达成任何协议。

Even if one does take place, a TikTok sale — which has become a referendum on the U.S.-China relationship — may still be disrupted if Beijing or Trump weighs in. Trump has been highly involved, including talking to Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, and saying that Oracle could handle buying TikTok. In an Aug. 6 executive order, he imposed a deadline for TikTok’s U.S. operations to be sold by Sept. 15.

即使真的发生了，如果北京或特朗普参与进来，TikTok出售(已成为美中关系的全民公决)可能仍会中断。特朗普一直在积极参与其中，包括与微软首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉(Satya Nadella)交谈，并说Oracle可以处理收购TikTok的问题。 在8月6日的行政命令中 ，他为TikTok在美国的业务设定了最后期限，该交易将于9月15日出售。

On Monday, TikTok sued the U.S. government, arguing that the executive order had deprived it of due process. The suit could give TikTok more time to operate in the United States if the courts order it, a stalling tactic that may help the app wait it out past the Nov. 3 election.

周一， TikTok起诉美国政府 ，称行政命令剥夺了其正当程序。 如果法院下令诉讼，TikTok可能会给TikTok更多的时间在美国运营，这种拖延战术可能会帮助该应用在11月3日大选之前等待它。

Steven Davidoff Solomon, a law professor at the University of California in Berkeley, who contributes to The New York Times, said the United States’ forcing such a huge company to sell itself was “really unprecedented.” He added, “This is a forced sale, and ByteDance is trying to keep it from being as much of a fire sale as possible.”

为《纽约时报》撰稿的加州大学伯克利分校法学教授史蒂文·戴维多夫·所罗门(Steven Davidoff Solomon)表示，美国强迫如此庞大的公司出售自己是“史无前例的”。 他补充说：“这是强制性的销售，字节跳动正试图阻止它成为尽可能多的火热销售。”

This account of TikTok’s deal discussions was based on interviews with more than a dozen people who were involved in or were briefed on the situation. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

关于TikTok的交易讨论的叙述是基于对十多个参与或了解情况的人士的采访。 他们之所以匿名，是因为他们无权公开发言。

Representatives from TikTok and ByteDance, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter, Oracle and the White House declined to comment.

来自TikTok和ByteDance，微软，Netflix，Twitter，Oracle和白宫的代表拒绝置评。

A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, called Trump’s executive order a “naked act of bullying” and added that the U.S. government would eventually “reap what it sows.”

中国外交部发言人王文彬称，特朗普的行政命令是“赤裸裸的欺凌行为”，并补充说美国政府最终将“收割母猪”。

TikTok, which ByteDance created partly out of a $1 billion purchase of the lip-syncing app Musical.ly in 2017, has become a phenomenon in the United States and elsewhere. More than 100 million Americans regularly use the app, the company has said, especially teenagers and 20-somethings.

字节跳动(TikTok)是ByteDance在2017年以10亿美元收购口型同步应用程序Musical.ly的一部分而创建的，在美国和其他地区已经成为一种现象。 该公司表示，有超过1亿美国人经常使用该应用程序，尤其是青少年和20多岁的人。

Last year, as tensions between the United States and China worsened, the Trump administration began scrutinizing TikTok and ByteDance. In November, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a powerful panel known as CFIUS that reviews foreign acquisitions, opened an inquiry into ByteDance’s deal to buy Musical.ly after lawmakers voiced concerns that TikTok was giving data on its American users to Beijing.

去年，随着中美之间的紧张局势恶化，特朗普政府开始对TikTok和ByteDance进行审查。 去年11月，美国外国投资委员会(CFIUS的一个强大委员会)审查了外国收购案， 该委员会对ByteDance收购Musical.ly的交易进行了调查。在国会议员对TikTok正在向北京提供其美国用户的数据表示担忧之后。

TikTok has denied that it helps Beijing. To reduce the U.S. pressure, Zhang Yiming, ByteDance’s chief executive, began consulting with a small group of investors in his internet company, including Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic. ByteDance, which is privately held, has been valued around $100 billion.

TikTok否认对北京有帮助。 为了减轻美国的压力，ByteDance的首席执行官张一鸣开始与他的互联网公司的一小群投资者进行咨询，包括红杉资本和General Atlantic。 私人拥有的ByteDance的估值约为1000亿美元。

Doug Leone, one of Sequoia’s partners, and Bill Ford, chief executive of General Atlantic, became Zhang’s bridge to the White House, the people with knowledge of the talks said. In their conversations, the Trump administration had specific stipulations: First, it wanted TikTok to overhaul its governance and shareholder structure to reduce ByteDance’s ownership of the app. Second, it wanted guarantees that TikTok’s American user data be stored on U.S. servers.

知情人士说，红杉资本的合伙人之一道格·利昂(Doug Leone)和通用大西洋公司(General Atlantic)的首席执行官比尔·福特(Bill Ford)成为了张与白宫的桥梁。 特朗普政府在谈话中有具体规定：首先，它希望TikTok彻底改革其治理和股东结构，以减少ByteDance对应用程序的所有权。 其次，它希望保证将TikTok的美国用户数据存储在美国服务器上。

The firms needed a major U.S. tech partner to get the deal done, the people close to the talks said. Zhang and the investors figured that Facebook, Google and Amazon were under too much antitrust scrutiny. But Microsoft, with its cash hoard of $137 billion, cloud expertise and strong government relationships, could work.

知情人士说，两家公司需要美国一家主要的技术合作伙伴才能完成交易。 张和投资者认为，Facebook，谷歌和亚马逊受到过多的反托拉斯审查。 但是，拥有1370亿美元现金储备，云专业知识和强大的政府关系的微软可以奏效。

Zhang, a former Microsoft engineer, reached out to Microsoft executives to gauge their interest, said one person with knowledge of the talks. Sequoia and General Atlantic declined to comment.

一位知情人士说，曾任微软工程师的张向微软高管伸出援手，以衡量他们的兴趣。 红杉和大西洋将军拒绝置评。

By July, Microsoft joined the talks. At the time, the discussions centered on Microsoft making a minority investment in TikTok, the people said. Between the U.S.-China tensions and the pressures of operating a social media company, Microsoft executives were hesitant about a big deal, said people briefed on the conversations. ByteDance and Zhang also wanted to retain some ownership of TikTok, they said.

到7月，微软加入了谈判。 知情人士说，当时的讨论集中在微软对TikTok进行少量投资。 知情人士说，在中美紧张局势和经营一家社交媒体公司的压力之间，微软高管对大笔交易犹豫不决。 他们说，ByteDance和张还希望保留TikTok的部分所有权。

Yet as the talks progressed, Microsoft grew warmer on a potentially larger deal with TikTok. While Microsoft has lots of data about industries like gaming and workplace software, it has little information about people’s social media behavior. TikTok’s user interaction information could strengthen Microsoft’s data science operation, the people briefed on the talks said.

然而，随着会谈的进行，微软与TikTok达成了可能更大的协议，从而使微软变得更加热情。 尽管Microsoft有很多有关游戏和办公软件等行业的数据，但有关人们社交媒体行为的信息却很少。 知情人士说，TikTok的用户交互信息可以加强微软的数据科学运作。

TikTok could also be linked to Microsoft’s $7 billion advertising business. Together, that could make a meaningful difference in Microsoft’s growth, they said.

TikTok也可能与微软70亿美元的广告业务相关。 他们说，在一起，这可能对微软的增长产生有意义的变化。

ByteDance and Microsoft came to see an acquisition of TikTok’s U.S. operations as a cleaner option, they added. Microsoft could allow TikTok to operate as a stand-alone unit, similar to the way it had treated past large acquisitions, such as its $2.5 billion acquisition of the company behind the video game “Minecraft” in 2014 and its $26 billion purchase of professional networking site LinkedIn in 2016.

他们补充说，ByteDance和微软开始将TikTok在美国的业务视为更清洁的选择。 微软可以允许TikTok作为独立部门运营，类似于过去处理大型收购的方式，例如2014年以25亿美元收购视频游戏“ Minecraft”背后的公司以及以260亿美元收购专业网络网站LinkedIn在2016年。

All the while, Trump administration officials were keeping an eye on the situation. Last month, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is chairman of CFIUS and holds the final word on the panel’s recommendations of ByteDance’s purchase of Musical.ly, spoke with TikTok and Microsoft about how TikTok’s data should be on U.S. servers, three of the people said.

一直以来，特朗普政府官员一直在关注局势。 上个月， 三名知情人士说，CFIUS主席，在小组对ByteDance购买Musical.ly的建议中拥有最终决定权的财政部长史蒂文·姆努钦 ( Steven Mnuchin)与TikTok和微软就如何将TikTok的数据存储在美国服务器上进行了交谈，其中三人说。 。

On July 31, Mnuchin presented the CFIUS analysis of the ByteDance-Musical.ly deal to Trump, two people said. The recommendation: that ByteDance be ordered to sell TikTok to an American owner, with Microsoft acquiring most of TikTok’s business and the stakes held by ByteDance’s Chinese shareholders winnowed to a minority investment.

两人称，7月31日，姆努钦向特朗普提交了CFIUS对ByteDance-Musical.ly交易的分析。 建议：要求ByteDance责令将TikTok出售给美国所有者，微软收购了TikTok的大部分业务，而ByteDance的中国股东持有的股份则转为少数股权投资。

A spokesman for the Treasury and Mnuchin declined to comment.

财政部和努钦的发言人拒绝置评。

But aboard Air Force One later that day, Trump said he planned to ban TikTok entirely. Several of Trump’s advisers were furious at the derailment of their recommendation, saying that China hawks like Peter Navarro, White House director of trade and manufacturing policy, had exerted too much influence, according to White House officials and others close to the president.

但是在当天晚些时候登上空军一号时，特朗普表示他计划完全禁止TikTok。 白宫官员和其他与总统关系密切的人士称，特朗普的几位顾问对他们的建议出轨感到愤怒，称白宫贸易和制造业政策主管彼得·纳瓦罗(Peter Navarro)等中国鹰派施加了过多影响。

In a statement, Navarro said, “Nobody exerts ‘influence’ over President Donald J. Trump. He listens carefully to a wide range of often sharply competing views and then he makes the best and most informed decision.”

纳瓦罗在一份声明中说：“没有人对唐纳德·J·特朗普总统施加'影响力'。 他认真听取了各种经常相互竞争的观点，然后做出了最佳，最明智的决定。”

The next 72 hours were chaotic. News leaked that Microsoft was in talks to acquire TikTok. Private equity firms and bankers circled. That briefly included Stephen A. Schwarzman, chief executive of the Blackstone Group, said people familiar with the talks. Blackstone declined to comment.

接下来的72个小时是混乱的。 消息传出微软正在就收购TikTok进行谈判。 私募股权公司和银行家盘旋。 知情人士说，其中包括黑石集团首席执行官史蒂芬·A·施瓦兹曼(Stephen A. Schwarzman)。 黑石拒绝置评。

That weekend, Trump called Nadella about TikTok. Trump said ByteDance had 45 days to complete a sale of TikTok’s business in the United States. He added that any deal should help the U.S. government in some way, perhaps in the form of job creation or other economic benefits, or some kind of offering to the Treasury Department.

那个周末，特朗普打电话给纳德拉有关TikTok。 特朗普说，字节跳动有45天的时间完成TikTok在美国的业务出售。 他补充说，任何交易都应以某种方式帮助美国政府，例如以创造就业机会或其他经济利益的形式，或以某种形式向财政部提供的形式。

Privately, officials at Microsoft and TikTok were shocked. The 45-day window put TikTok at a disadvantage in negotiating the best deal. Trump also seemed to be arguing for “tipping the waiter,” essentially offering a percentage of the deal to the Treasury, the people said.

私下里，微软和TikTok的官员感到震惊。 45天的窗口使TikTok在协商最佳交易方面处于劣势。 知情人士说，特朗普似乎也在争辩“给服务生小费”，实质上是向财政部提供了一部分交易。

On Aug. 2, Microsoft issued a statement about its pursuit of TikTok and said it would provide “proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.” It did not elaborate on what that meant.

8月2日，微软发表了一份声明 ，称其追求TikTok，并表示“将为美国(包括美国财政部)提供适当的经济利益”。 它没有详细说明这意味着什么。

A few days later, Trump signed his executive order to block TikTok if it was not sold by mid-September. A week later, he issued another executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to close such a deal.

几天后，特朗普签署了行政命令，以阻止9月中旬将TikTok出售。 一周后，他又下达了一项行政命令，给予ByteDance 90天的交易时间。

Since then, other potential suitors have emerged, including Oracle. ByteDance, backed into a corner by the White House, wants the best price for TikTok — and not from only one bidder in Microsoft. Sensing ByteDance’s weakness, more potential acquirers are kicking the tires on the hot, fast-growing app. All of that may turn off Microsoft from a purchase.

从那时起，出现了其他潜在的追求者，包括Oracle。 被白宫支持的ByteDance想要TikTok的最佳价格，而不仅仅是微软的一位竞标者。 意识到ByteDance的弱点，越来越多的潜在收购者正在为这个快速增长的热门应用程序而烦恼。 所有这些都可能使微软无法进行购买。

Even as deal discussions have continued, TikTok sued the U.S. government Monday over Trump’s executive order.

即使交易讨论仍在继续，TikTok周一仍就特朗普的行政命令起诉了美国政府。

“We far prefer constructive dialogue over litigation,” the company said in a statement. But given the executive order, it said, “we simply have no choice.”

该公司在一份声明中表示：“相对于诉讼，我们更喜欢进行建设性对话。” 但是，根据行政命令，它说：“我们别无选择。”

Reporting was contributed by Ana Swanson, Maggie Haberman, Michael J. de la Merced, Raymond Zhong and Alan Rappeport.

报告由Ana Swanson，Maggie Haberman，Michael J. de la Merced，Raymond Zhong和Alan Rappeport贡献。

For more great stories, subscribe to The New York Times.

欲了解更多精彩故事，请 订阅《纽约时报》 。

© 2020 New York Times News Service

©2020纽约时报新闻社