Walmart team up with Microsoft in a bid for a social media company, Tik-Tok US assets. The race to buy Tik-Tok US operations entered its final stages after CEO Kevin Mayer revealed his lift off from the position.
Mayer is leaving just three months after joining the company in the middle of negotiations to sell Chinese owned video app’s US operations to Microsoft or Oracle.
Mayer was the chief executive officer of Walt Disney’s top streaming before becoming CEO of TikTok and operating officer of parent Byte Dance on 1 June 2020.
Byte Dance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming said in a separate letter reviewed in Reuters that the company was moving to find resolutions to the issues that they are facing globally, particularly in the US.
Walmart praised Tik Tok’s e-commerce advertising capabilities. The sale is happening as the company is under fire from administration under US president Donald Trumph as a national security risk.
The Trumph administration demanded that China’s byte dance owns Tik-tok globally to sell its US operations.
‘We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both the expectations of US’. Walmart stated.
It was said that the three-way partnership would help Walmart to reach its customers cross virtual as well as physical sales and grow its online market place and advertising business where the share of Walmart rose to 6%.
This deal for Tiktok would definitely help Walmart CEO Doug McMillon move the company well beyond its brick and mortar roots.
Tiktok may provide access to large, young, and loyal group of users inherent by the advertising agencies and their blue-chip clients. It is expected that platforms like Tik-Tok would give Walmart easy access to their audience and whatever it counters to attract.
Having such a serious stake would not only allow Walmart to compress its marketing efforts but would also give it access to counter its target that would help it cater to its shoppers more effectively.
