Walmart to team up with Microsoft on TikTok bid: Reports

Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins Akiko Fujita to discuss how Walmart and Microsoft are reportedly teaming up to make a bid on TikTok.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Let's turn our attention to the other big news of the day-- a flurry of headlines coming in on the potential acquisition of TikTok. If we look at Walmart shares right now, hitting a new high, up 5 and 1/2% on news that it is now joining Microsoft in a bid to acquire the Chinese app. Let's bring in Dan Howley, who's been tracking the headlines there.

Dan, there's been a lot of question marks, Oracle, why they would go for a TikTok. Now you've got Walmart joining in a bid for Microsoft. And what's your takeaway on that? At the end of the day, is it really just all about the data that this app has in the bids? Is that it?

DAN HOWLEY: I think that's exactly what it is. This is an app that's heavily used by teens. And, obviously, that's a market that everybody wants to get a hold of data for, because it helps inform them about what they should be looking at as far as new products to offer and things along those lines. I think that's really where Walmart's interests lie in this.

Don't forget, they also are trying to work to fight back against Amazon as far as delivery services go and then as far as video offerings go. They're trying to offer something that's similar to Amazon's Prime Video. So it makes sense that they would want to understand what teens and Gen Z, I guess, cohort, is really trying to do online.

Now Microsoft makes sense. It makes sense. It's a company that's a major tech player. They have a presence in social media with LinkedIn, albeit it's a different type of social media.

Oracle, on the other hand, doesn't really seem to make sense. That seems to be based on essentially the connections that Oracle has to the Trump administration. And that seems about it. I mean, you don't think of Oracle and then think social media. You think of how are they going to hook up my building with internet access, right, or something along those lines.

So I think really, it will come down to those two players, the Walmart and Microsoft and Oracle. I think at the end of the day, it will probably come down to Microsoft and Walmart, though.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yes, certainly this deal or any-- this bid really moving pretty quickly. And several reports suggesting they could have an official announcement of a deal within the next few days. We'll be tracking that very closely. Thanks so much for that, Dan.