BENTONVILLE, Ark. (CelebrityAccess) — Brick & mortar retail titan Walmart is teaming up with Microsoft in a bid to acquire social media service TikTok in key markets.
According to CNBC, TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance is reportedly close to reaching an agreement to sell its operations in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand in a deal worth as much as $30 billion.
In a statement on Thursday, Walmart said: “The way TikTok has integrated e-commerce and advertising capabilities in other markets is a clear benefit to creators and users in those markets. We believe a potential relationship with TikTok U.S. 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. We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both the expectations of U.S. TikTok users while satisfying the concerns of U.S. government regulators.”
A deal to acquire certain of TikTok’s regional operations is also being pursued by several other tech companies, including Oracle, CNBC reported.
The Microsoft deal, which was first revealed earlier this month, comes amid scrutiny from governments, including India and the U.S. about the Beijing-based company’s data practices.
On August 6th, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will impose stiff restrictions on American companies doing business with TikTok in a seemingly transparent bid to encourage a sale.
The sanctions, which go into effect in September, effectively ban advertising by U.S. companies on the service. The move would also require the app to be removed from mobile app stores and prevent people who have already downloaded TikTok from upgrading to new releases.
TikTok has refuted the allegations leveled against it by the Trump Administration, and said the President’s order “paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”
The company also announced it plans a lawsuit to fight the restrictions.
