Integrating the speed and agility of social media and e-commerce into the lumbering hulk of the largest retailer on Earth is a monumental challenge. But Walmart Stores has made impressively quick moves toward remaking itself as a bricks-and-clicks powerhouse during the past nine months.
In April, Walmart purchased Twitter app developer Kosmix for $300 million and instantly refashioned it as Walmart Labs, its social and e-commerce research-and-development unit in Mountain View, Calif. Within months, Walmart Labs had added advertising network OneRiot and mobile app developer Small Society — acquisitions aimed at grabbing talent — and had managed to assemble a formidable presence in Silicon Valley.
Meanwhile, Walmart has overhauled its e-commerce unit in the San Francisco Bay Area and changed its connection to the mother ship.
Joel Anderson, based at corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., took over as president of Walmart .com in the U.S.
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