How interesting to see Amazon and Walmart making major acquisitions on the same day.
One is for offense, the other is for defense.
Goes to show that the future is Amazon and not Walmart.
One is for offense, the other is for defense.
Goes to show that the future is Amazon and not Walmart.
I wouldn't be so sure of that. In our tech circle, Amazon is indeed the darling and we love to hate on Walmart. However the latter is definitely skilled at logistics and supply chain optimization. Walmart is skilled in cut-throat margin markets, with the power to shift the upstream supply in order to meet its own goals. They are also better positioned to serve a wider demographic than just the upper middle class.
Granted, so is Amazon.
Seriously, Amazon comes in for more than its fair share of (often deserved) hate here on HN.
It makes more in profits per year than AMZN probably has it's entire history.
And I certainly think it's gonna be a lot harder for AMZN to replicate WMT's network of retail stores (which double up as warehouses) than it would be for WMT to replicate any of AMZN's online efforts.
In addition, by being a "retailer" WMT also avoids getting into competitive fights with the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft, all major platform owners, and can instead better partner with them.
One is for $13.7B, the other $0.3B.