According to people familiar with the matter, TikTok has selected a bidder for its operations in the US, New Zealand and Australia, and the company may announce the deal as soon as Tuesday.
Wal-Mart-Microsoft and Oracle are competitors. According to media reports, the sale price is expected to be between 20 billion and 30 billion US dollars.
However, this transaction may be delayed or interrupted. The Chinese government updated its technology export list on Friday to include the artificial intelligence technology used by TikTok . TikTok’s parent company ByteDance said last weekend that it needs permission from the Chinese government before selling products to American companies.
Last week, Wal-Mart unexpectedly became a new competitor and declared that this social media application will help its e-commerce business.
Wal-Mart initially tried to form an alliance with Alphabet and Softbank to become the majority shareholder of TikTok. But after the US government restricted the transaction period and hoped that a technology company would lead the transaction, Alphabet and SoftBank withdrew, and Wal-Mart chose to cooperate with Microsoft to bid. However, in this case, Walmart will only become a minority shareholder of TikTok.
TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned last week only a few months after taking office, which also heralds the end of the transaction. TikTok executive Vanessa Pappas was appointed as interim CEO. Pappas said in an interview on Friday that with the help of the new e-commerce tool in the TikTok app, she expects to see synergies with Walmart.
Microsoft did not immediately comment. Walmart and TikTok declined to comment.
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