Welcome to the TechMain Brain for Tuesday, January 14th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Break out your 2025 headline bingo cards. Did you have Elon Musk maybe buying TikTok on there? You're a better bingo player than I am. Is the EU going to back off tech in the Trump era. More layoffs come to meta, the big streaming

sports play that isn't going to happen now, and why is Barcelona a hub for spyware companies?

Here's what you miss today in the world of tech.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by this, because if you think about it, this makes logical sense

for all the parties involved. What if Elon bought TikTok? According to Bloomberg, Chinese

officials are evaluating an option involving Elon Musk acquiring TikTok US, X would take control

of TikTok US and run the business concurrently. Quote, Beijing officials strongly prefer that TikTok remains under the

ownership of parent bite dance, the people say, and the company is contesting the impending ban with

an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the justices signaled during arguments on January 10th

that they are likely to uphold the law. Senior Chinese officials had already begun to debate

contingency plans for TikTok as part of

an expansive discussion on how to work with Donald Trump's administration, one of which involves

Musk, said the people, asking not to be identified, revealing confidential discussions.

A potential high-profile deal with one of Trump's closest allies holds some appeal for the Chinese

government, which is expected to have some say over whether TikTok is ultimately sold, said the people. Musk spent more than $250 million

supporting Trump's reelection and has been tapped for a prominent role in improving government

efficiency after the Republican takes office. Under one scenario that's been discussed by the

Chinese government, Musk's X, the former Twitter,

would take control of TikTok US and run the business together, the people said,

with more than 170 million users in the U.S. TikTok could bolster X's efforts to attract advertisers.

Musk also founded a separate artificial intelligence company, XAI, that could benefit from the

huge amounts of data generated from TikTok. Chinese officials have yet to reach any firm consensus about how to proceed,

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