If it did happen, could Elon afford it? Surely TikTok is much more valuable than Twitter, right? Musk could barely scrounge enough backing and had to put up his Tesla shares as collateral to get enough cash for the Twitter purchase.
The question isn't about affording it, the questions is why China would give up such a valuable Intel gathering and propaganda tool? They wouldn't sell it for all the tea in China.
And hopefully they'll do that. The shit you can find on Twitter is alot more sick than TikTok, and you can be sure Elon would make it the same shitshow.
Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 for 44 billion, and he was overpaying.
For TikTok's American component, its price could be $100 billion, according to BBC and CBS or even $180 billion according to the Financial Times. Although a forced sale would definitely decrease the value (and that value includes TikTok's proprietary algorithms which aren't a given) it is definitely worth more than Twitter, even 2022 Twitter