Microsoft and Walmart’s joint bid to buy TikTok could help take on mutual rival Amazon 

Walmart‘s decision to join Microsoft in a bid to acquire TikTok could give the two companies a powerful edge against their mutual rival Amazon, analysts say.

Microsoft and Walmart are already business partners. Microsoft provides cloud computing services that help run the retailer’s stores and online shopping. 

The two companies signed a 5-year partnership in 2018, enabling them to join forces against Amazon, which competes with Walmart in e-commerce and Microsoft in cloud computing. 

Working together on the TikTok acquisition would be an extension of that partnership and provide inroads to Generation Z, said Futurum Research analyst Daniel Newman, according to Business Insider.

‘With the demographic that TikTok serves, the e-commerce play that can tie to the riches of data being created on the platform will have a greater means to directly monetize with Walmart’s expansive online commerce and logistics experience,’ Newman said.

However, Newman added that he doesn’t see Microsoft and Walmart working together on TikTok as ‘a straight take-on of Amazon as much as it is a smart and opportunistic partnership for the two companies to reach a key rising demographic.’  

He said that if the deal goes through, it could lead to opportunities for Amazon to tie more closely to Facebook and Instagram for social e-commerce.

Walmart said in a statement Thursday that a deal with Microsoft and TikTok could help it expand its advertising business and reach more shoppers.

‘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,’ the retailer said in a statement. 

TikTok, through its fun, goofy videos, has gained 100 million U.S. users. But the White House is pushing TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell its U.S. business if it wants to keep operating in the country, citing security risks.

Microsoft has confirmed discussions with TikTok; other tech companies such as Oracle are also reportedly interested in a possible acquisition. 

While ByteDance hasn’t disclosed its asking price for TikTok, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that it is seeking roughly $30 billion for TikTok’s U.S. operations. 

The Journal reported that bidders so far haven’t been willing to meet that price. TikTok didn’t immediately reply to an emailed request for comment.

Over the past year, TikTok has tried to put distance between its app and its Chinese ownership. It installed former top Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its American CEO, but he resigned Thursday after just a few months on the job.

In a letter to employees, Mayer said that his decision to leave comes after the ‘political environment has sharply changed.’

ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017, then bought Musical.ly, a video service popular with teens in the U.S. and Europe, and combined the two. A twin service, Douyin, is available for Chinese users.

U.S. authorities are concerned that TikTok would turn over user data to Chinese authorities and that it censors content that would upset China. 

TikTok denies that it has shared user data with the Chinese government and would not do so if asked, nor censored videos at Chinese authorities´ request. It says it’s not a national security threat.

The sale situation has been unusual, with President Donald Trump demanding payment for the U.S. government for its part in orchestrating a deal, a step that experts say is unprecedented. 

Trump has given ByteDance until September 15 to complete the sale, or face a forced shutdown of TikTok in the U.S. Other bidders are said to include software giant Oracle.

The president said on August 18 that Oracle was ‘a great company’ that ‘could handle’ buying TikTok. He declined to state a preference between Oracle and Microsoft as buyers.