Skip to main content

Walmart joins Microsoft in TikTok acquisition bid, Oracle offers $20 billion

 

Walmart has joined Microsoft in its bid to acquire TikTok, the Chinese-owned video app popular among Generation Z, according to multiple reports on Thursday, August 27.

Recommended Videos

Microsoft has long been the frontrunner in TikTok’s very public purchase battle since President Donald Trump threatened to ban the app over national security concerns. Walmart’s “partnership would meet both the expectations of U.S. TikTok users while satisfying the concerns of U.S. government regulators,” the company said in a statement on Thursday. Trump ordered that the app be sold by a September deadline.

“The way TikTok has integrated e-commerce and advertising capabilities in other markets is a clear benefit to creators and users in those markets,” a Walmart spokesperson told CNBC in a statement.

But Walmart is not the only billion-dollar company joining in on potential acquisition bids. On Thursday, The Wrap reported that Oracle, which sells software and cloud engineering technology, offered ByteDance, which owns TikTok, $20 billion — $10 billion in cash, and $10 billion in Oracle stock — while also agreeing that half of any of TikTok’s profits will go right back to ByteDance. This is the first time a dollar amount has been placed on the purchase of the social media app, which has an estimated value of up to $50 billion.

TikTok will reportedly announce more details on the deal in the coming days, according to The New York Times, but it still remains unclear which acquisition deal will come out on top.

Digital Trends reached out to TikTok, Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle for more information. We will update this story when we hear back.

On Wednesday, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned from his post after three months, citing political pressure from the Trump administration, but told employees in a letter to expect a resolution to the acquisition soon.

Meira Gebel
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Meira Gebel is a freelance reporter based in Portland. She writes about tech, social media, and internet culture for Digital…
TikTok users sue to overturn Montana’s statewide ban of app
TikTok logo on an iPhone.

A group of TikTok users has sued the state of Montana in a bid to overturn its plan to ban the app from January 1, 2024.

The complaint was filed on Wednesday evening in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana just hours after Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) signed into law a bill banning the Chinese-owned app over concerns it could impact U.S. national security.

Read more
TikTok faces outright ban in first U.S. state
TikTok icon illustration.

TikTok received more bad news on Wednesday after Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R) signed into law a bill banning the popular app from January 1, 2024.

While more than half of U.S. states have already issued TikTok bans on government-issued devices, Montana’s action against the Chinese-owned app is significant as it’s the first state to impose a total ban on the app.

Read more
Former ByteDance exec claims China had access to TikTok data
TikTok logo on an iPhone.

TikTok is feeling the heat again after a former leading executive at its parent company, Byte Dance, made a series of damning claims in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed recently in the San Francisco Superior Court

Among the allegations made by Yintao Yu was that the Chinese Community Party (CCP) “maintained supreme access” to TikTok data stored in the U.S. when he worked for the company between 2017 and 2018.

Read more