As the time nearer to 16th September deadline given by President Trump, the TikTok acquisition is heating up in leaps and bounds as days go by! In a surprise development, Walmart has entered the race as well. The American retail giant, instead of bidding on TikTok as a standalone buyer, has been in talks with Microsoft to bid for it.
Walmart said in a statement, "We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both the expectations of US TikTok users while satisfying the concerns of US government regulators.”
Apart from Microsoft and Walmart, Oracle has also submitted bids in a deal that could come within the week. Walmart would also own a stake in a newly spun off TikTok business, alongside Microsoft.
As per reports, TikTok's parent company ByteDance is nearing a deal to sell TikTok's North American, Australian and New Zealand operations which could be worth $25 billion to $30 billion. Walmart was earlier in talks with Softbank for a partnership but it did not materialise since Walmart does not have a cloud technology component.
Microsoft has been in talks with Byte Dance for weeks. In an earlier statement, the company had said that it plans to finalise the deal with TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance by September 15.
