TikTok development after Oracle Corp.’s (NYSE: ORCL) surprising bid. Nope, we just had to get a M. Night Shyamalan twist.
What company would you expect to join forces with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to buy out the massive social media platform TikTok?
Obviously, the next bidder has to be Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT)! You can get everything at Walmart, truly.
With the TikTok deal landing between $20 billion and $30 billion, I get how you’d need a Big Tech don and retail’s biggest employer to team up, like a mighty Voltron without a lick of social media experience.
Walmart didn’t go into detail with its reasoning, so let’s follow the breadcrumb trail of our own logic here, and you tell me if it pans out (or doesn’t).
Walmart has amped up its competition with “Emperor E-Commerce” over there, Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), correct? We talked just last week about how Walmart’s online sales surged 97% to reach record levels, even if that pace of growth isn’t maintainable.
But e-commerce is a multi-pronged marketing fork … if you can use it right and don’t shove said fork in a wall socket. And with Walmart’s new membership program set to rival Amazon Prime, TikTok could be a way to reach more eyes.
More eyes mean more money … typically.
Daniel Ives, managing director and tech analyst for Wedbush Securities, gave this mixed metaphor take: “When you think right now about going up against the 800-pound gorilla, Amazon, obviously they’ve been behind the eight ball ... but Walmart could use this as a golden opportunity to partner with Microsoft and monetize the TikTok base…”
The case is as clear as mud: Walmart needs any and every advantage to stack up to Amazon. It’s the just the kind of wretched near-Lovecraftian buyout science experiment that nobody asked for.
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