Ask HN: Should Microsoft Buy TikTok and Make Kevin Systrom CEO?

No. TikTok is social media and the only real business of social media is data harvesting and advertising. Social media is slowly but continuously becoming more of a toxic business due to revenue growth pressues, potentially increased regulation, and increased political sensitivity.

Financially the only way this makes any sense for Microsoft's business is to directly integrate TikTok data collection into Microsoft's existing media products like MSN, Bing, and related third party advertising.