Microsoft, Oracle Race to the Finish to Acquire TikTok
According to dueling reports, Microsoft and Oracle are both front-runners in the battle to wrest control of TikTok away from its evil Chinese overlords. Cough.
But here’s one fact everyone seems to agree on: The “winner” of the TikTok Sweepstakes ™ will be announced as soon as this week—but probably next week—and will pay upwards of $20 billion to acquire a firm no sane person would want.
According to The Wrap, whatever that is, Oracle is the front-runner and has bid $20 billion—$10 billion in cash plus $10 billion in Oracle stock—to acquire TikTok and it will return 50 percent of its annual profits back to ByteDance, its China-based parent company, for two years.
CNBC disagrees. According to that publication, Microsoft is now partnering with Walmart to buy TikTok for somewhere between $20 billion and $30 billion. And the retail giant has confirmed its participation. Walmart, perhaps notably, recently adopted Microsoft’s Azure and Microsoft 365 solutions.
“We believe a potential relationship with TikTok US in partnership with Microsoft could add this key functionality and provide Walmart with an important way for us to reach and serve omnichannel customers as well as grow our third-party marketplace and advertising businesses,” Walmart told CNBC. “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.”
This is unfortunate.
Tagged with TikTok