Walmart to acquire 7.5% stake in TikTok; new U.S. public company to be formed

Walmart said Saturday (Sept. 19) it continues to work on the final agreements to purchase a 7.5% stake in video-sharing platform TikTok Global as well as enter into commercial agreements to provide Walmart e-commerce, fulfillment, payments and other omnichannel services to TikTok.

The news comes as President Donald Trump announced Saturday that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, has received tentative approval for an agreement with the U.S. government to resolve outstanding issues, which will now include Oracle and Walmart together investing to acquire 20% of the newly-formed TikTok Global business.

As a part of the deal, TikTok is creating a new company called TikTok Global that will be responsible for providing all TikTok services to users in the United States and most of the users in the rest of the world. The Trump administration conditionally approved the landmark deal where Oracle will become TikTok’s secure cloud provider.

TikTok Global will be majority-owned by American investors, including Oracle and Walmart. TikTok Global will be an independent American company, headquartered in the U.S., with four Americans on the five-member board of directors.

All TikTok technology will be in possession of TikTok Global and comply with U.S. laws and privacy regulations. Data privacy for 100 million American TikTok users will be quickly established by moving all American data to Oracle’s Generation 2 Cloud data centers, the most secure cloud data centers in the world, the companies said in an announcement.

Walmart released the following statement regarding this news late Saturday:

“Our CEO, Doug McMillon, would also serve as one of five board members of the newly created company. In addition, we would work toward an initial public offering of the company in the United States within the next year to bring even more ownership to American citizens. The final transaction will need to be approved by the relevant U.S. government agencies.

“We believe this deal will benefit the U.S. in many ways, including bringing over 25,000 jobs over time as well as continuing to develop exciting, innovative products for people to enjoy around the world.

“TikTok has delighted hundreds of millions of users and creators around the world, and we are looking forward to creating an even more exciting experience for that community. This partnership will provide Walmart with an important way for us to expand our reach and serve omnichannel customers as well as grow our third-party marketplace, fulfillment and advertising businesses.”

TikTok Global will have an initial public offering (IPO) in less than 12 months and be listed on a U.S. stock exchange. After the IPO, U.S. ownership of TikTok Global will increase and continue to grow over time, Walmart said.