Joe Nocera, Columnist

Oracle’s TikTok Deal Pours Trump Toxin Into Capitalism

Rewarding your friends in business is the hallmark of countries like Russia, not America.

September 16, 2020 at 3:20 PM UTC

Joe Nocera is a former Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He has written business columns for Esquire, GQ and the New York Times, and is the former editorial director of Fortune. He is the host and writer of the Bloomberg-Wondery podcast "The Shrink Next Door."

Inside job.
Photographer: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images

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Is this really what it’s come to?

Two companies, one American and one Chinese, make a deal. The deal is contingent on U.S. government approval. It is difficult to see the U.S. company’s justification for doing the deal — it sells boring-but-necessary software to businesses while the Chinese company is a quirky social media phenomenon beloved by teenagers.