US retail giant Walmart says it is teaming up with tech giant Microsoft to bid for the US operations of TikTok, the Chinese-owned video sharing app that President Donald Trump has sworn to shut down unless it is sold to a US company.
One wonders why Walmart, a retail giant, would be interested in TikTok when it seems this is not inline with its core business
Walmart believes that a joint bid with the tech group would satisfy the Trump administration and could help increase its third-party marketplace and advertising businesses.
“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,” the US retail giant added.
“The way TikTok has integrated e-commerce and advertising capabilities in other markets is a clear benefit to creators and users in those markets,” Walmart said. “We believe a potential relationship with TikTok US in partnership with Microsoft could add this key functionality and provide Walmart with an important way for us to reach and serve omnichannel customers as well as grow our third-party marketplace and advertising businesses.”
This is interesting news as Microsoft already indicated its intention to buy TikTok’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. On another note, Oracle and Twitter have also independently signified their interest in buy TikTok from ByteDance.
This interest by Walmart is coming hours after CEO Kevin Mayer resigned his position as CEO of TikTok as tensions soared between the United States and China. He was appointed in May.
Mayer’s resignation comes days after TikTok filed a lawsuit challenging a crackdown by the US government over claims the wildly popular social media app can be used to spy on Americans.
Walmart and Microsoft already have a strategic partnership around the tech company’s cloud business.
