Movement for ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok App is displayed on a smartphone on an ordered photo taken in Brooklyn, New York, June 30, 2020.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
TikTok is close to a deal to sell its US operations and could announce a deal in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter.
Kevin Mayer, CEO of TikTok, announced his resignation Thursday after news of the announcement leaked to the Financial Times. Mayer would have initially announced his decision to step up next week along with the sales deal, but he postponed the timing to tackle the news, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private are. Mayer joined TikTok earlier this year after running Disney’s streaming video operations.
Vanessa Pappas, the head of the American company TikTok, will run TikTok after Mayer’s departure, the company said in an internal memo to employees.
TikTok has not decided on a buyer and is still discussing bids from Oracle and a joint bid from Walmart and Microsoft. Walmart confirmed its involvement in a potential TikTok deal, saying it would partner with Microsoft. Earlier, CNBC reported that Walmart was in talks with SoftBank about a joint bid for the company, but that effort would likely fail because the consortium did not have a cloud technology component.
Walmart shares rose more than 3% after releasing the following statement to CNBC:
“The way in which TikTok has integrated e-commerce and advertising capabilities into other markets is a clear advantage for makers and users in those markets,” a Walmart spokesman told CNBC. “We believe that a potential relationship with TikTok US in partnership with Microsoft can add this key functionality and provide Walmart with an important way to reach and serve our omnichannel customers, as well as grow our third-party marketplace and advertising business. We are confident that a Walmart and Microsoft partnership would meet both expectations of U.S. TikTok users while meeting the concerns of U.S. government regulators. “
Spokesmen for TikTok and SoftBank declined to comment. Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.
TikTok is likely to sell its US, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand operations for a valuation in the $ 20 billion to $ 30 billion range, but a price has not yet been decided, people said.
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