Bytedance founder secretly met with Walmart CEO last week, sources say
Last week, while TikTok’s CEO was getting pummeled on Capitol Hill over the wildly popular app’s ties to China, the founder of the Beijing-based company he reports to flew to Arkansas to meet with the CEO of Walmart, sources told On The Money.
It couldn’t immediately be learned what ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming — whose net worth has lately been clobbered, though it’s still estimated at $43 billion — discussed at the meeting in Bentonville, Ark., with Doug McMillon, the boss of the US’s biggest retailer.
Insiders noted, however, that two years ago Walmart had been in talks to partner with software giant Oracle to buy TikTok’s US operations under pressure from the Trump administration.
ByteDance in recent weeks has pooh-poohed the prospect of a sale of its US business.
Last week, the government officially said it would “firmly oppose” any such deal.
A week earlier, TikTok had insisted it was “100% false” when On The Money reported it had begun talks about a possible sale.
However, when asked in recent days about Yiming visiting Arkansas, the company demurred.
“Thanks for reaching out,” a TikTok spokesperson told The Post. “We don’t comment on rumors.”
Walmart and Oracle didn’t return multiple calls and emails.
Meanwhile, some insiders say ByteDance’s public opposition to a sale amounts to little more than playing hard to get.
“Their public posturing is we’re not doing a sale,” a source with knowledge of the company’s operations told The Post. “The private posture is we need time to get a deal together — the only way to get a full value for the divestment is saying we’re not selling it.”
A former CFIUS official likewise threw cold water on China’s recent comments.
“The Chinese government has no say over US assets in US jurisdiction,” the former CFIUS official told The Post. “The US could force a sale at any time — it’s smart to consider who they would sell it to.”
Under the proposed deal with Oracle, Walmart – which has embraced TikTok as a way to reach younger shoppers – reportedly would have taken a 7.5% in TikTok’s US unit and McMillon would have taken a seat on the board.
Still, the likelihood of reviving this deal is slim, insiders explained.
Most legislation that aims to crack down on TikTok calls for a complete ban of the app in the US rather than a divestiture.
Last Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s testimony before Congress was widely headlined a “disaster.”
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives pegged the likelihood of an outright ban at “90%-plus” as Chew “came off [as] evasive” around the “sensitive China data topic.”
“I don’t think any of us walked away feeling that our data is safe or that there is any accountability for TikTok,” Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) said.
The hearing “left more questions than answers.”