NEW YORK (US) – Hours after TikTok’s CEO announced his resignation, Walmart Inc said it was bidding for the US assets of the social media company.
Amid the ongoing talks to sell the Chinese-owned short-form video application’s US operations to Microsoft or Oracle, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer announced his resignation less than three months after he joined.
ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is expected to begin exclusive discussions with a bidder within 48 hours and sign an agreement by September 15.
The sale negotiations are taking place at a time when the firm is under fire from the Trump government, which sees it as a national security threat because of the large amount of user information it handles.
The government wants the Chinese company to sell its US operations. Earlier this week, TikTok sued an executive order which virtually banned it in the US.
Walmart praised TikTok’s integration of e-commerce and advertising capabilities in other markets and said that a three-way deal could bring that integration to the United States.
“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,” Walmart said in a statement.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.