US retail corporation Walmart has announced that it is teaming up with Microsoft in a bid for TikTok. This makes for another name in the list of companies looking to buy the short video app. Another prominent name that is already on the list is Twitter.
What makes Walmart’s entry into this particular bidding field is that it is cooperating with another company. This is unlike Twitter or Oracle, another company bidding for the app, which are all competing against Microsoft to acquire the app’s US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand side of the business. The company also did not disclose what its ownership split will be like if they got the winning bid.
The parent company of TikTok, Beijing-based ByteDance, is reportedly close to coming to an agreement. The deal will likely be within the US$20 billion (~RM83.49 billion) to US$30 (~RM125.235 billion) billion range, making it a massive acquisition.
Earlier in August, US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders that will effectively ban TikTok as well as WeChat. He would later sign another one, giving the former 90 more days to divest its US business. The company has since filed a lawsuit in response to the executive orders.
(Source: CNBC)
