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| Walmart partnered with Microsoft to purchase TikTok |
Walmart said it is working with Microsoft to acquire TikTok. The retail giant, with a retail market value of $ 387 billion, has confirmed that it is interested in purchasing this popular short video app.
ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, will sign a deal to sell its businesses in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand with a deal value of between $ 20 billion and $ 30 billion.
The source said: ByteDance hasn't picked a buyer yet, but it may announce the deal in the coming days.
Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove declined to disclose how the two companies split from TikTok and whether Walmart has a majority stake.
Walmart is trying to acquire TikTok while trying to compete better with Amazon and is planning to launch a membership program called Walmart + soon in response to Amazon Prime.
If this deal is approved, Wal-Mart and Microsoft could reach hundreds of millions of consumers who can purchase their products or become profitable audiences to advertise.
TikTok said in a document this week: TikTok has nearly 100 million monthly active users in the US.
Walmart had previously considered SoftBank, but that suggestion was rejected by the US government. Because it does not contain the basic components of cloud technology.
With Microsoft's participation, Wal-Mart's situation could improve as the company announced a five-year cloud contract with Microsoft two years ago.
The retailer has obtained Microsoft Cloud Infrastructure (Azure) certification and software bundle with Microsoft Office 365 productivity apps.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in July that TikTok had to look for buyers after the US government considered banning TikTok and other Chinese apps due to security concerns.
The US government has raised concerns that the Chinese government may access user data collected by TikTok.
The Pentagon banned government-issued mobile devices from China in January, and the US House and Senate took similar measures this summer.
President (Donald Trump) joined the call to ban the app, and his presidential campaign asked people to sign the petitions.
Trump signed an executive order on August 6 claiming that China could access personal information of Americans using data collected by TikTok.
The app has repeatedly denied this claim, stating that its user data is stored in the US, the backup is in Singapore, and the data center is not in China.