The US retail giant Walmart announced, on Thursday, its cooperation with Microsoft, to purchase the short video application "TikTok" owned by the Chinese company "ByteDance."
"We are confident that the partnership, Walmart and Microsoft, will meet the expectations of TikTok users in the United States, while responding to the concerns of government regulators," the company said in a statement.
Reuters quoted "informed" sources as saying that the Chinese company had held talks to sell its operations, in North America, Australia and New Zealand, to companies including Microsoft and Oracle, in a deal that could reach between $ 25 billion and $ 30 billion.
Walmart shares rose 4.4 percent after this statement.
Weeks ago, the administration of US President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting the use of the application in the United States, and Trump accused the application of allowing China to track down federal employees, prepare files for people for the purpose of blackmailing them, and spying on companies.
The Chinese company that owns TikTok has filed a lawsuit against the US President’s administration to challenge his decision.
Microsoft said earlier that it was in talks to acquire the application, and that it aims to complete it by September 15, stressing that it will ensure that all personal data of American users is transferred and that it remains in the United States.
The acquisition of the "TikTok" application will provide a rare opportunity for Microsoft to become a major competitor to social media giants such as "Facebook" and "Snap". The company also owns the "LinkedIn" social network.
TikTok chief executive Kevin Mayer resigned from his post on Thursday, and was replaced by General Manager, Vanessa Papas, temporarily, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.
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