Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Add to portfolio

LONDON (Reuters) - Asda, the British arm of Walmart <WMT.N> that has agreed a takeover by rival Sainsbury's <SBRY.L>, was alone among the country's big four grocers in holding its market share in the latest 12-week period, industry data showed on Tuesday. Asda's sales rose 1.5 percent in the 12 weeks to Dec. 2 and it maintained its UK grocery market share at 15.0 percent, market researcher Kantar Worldpanel said. In contrast Sainsbury's sales slipped 0.2 percent and its share dipped to 16.0 percent from 16.4 percent a year ago. Sainsbury's, Britain's second largest supermarket group, agreed a 7.3 billion pound takeover of Asda, the number three, in April, a combination that could overtake Tesco <TSCO.L> as Britain's biggest supermarket group. The deal is currently being investigated by Britain's regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority, which is expected to publish its initial findings next month.

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Community updates, Crime Statistics, Local News & Events and much more... Asda's selling a Christmas dinner on a pizza. It's probably more synonymous with summer - but Asda is selling a KEG of fruit cider for just £10. If you're no fan of mulled wine, maybe the offer at the supermarket giant will go down well in your household for Christmas. Asda has confirmed it is selling five-litre kegs Strongbow Dark Fruit for just £10. Sainsbury’s blasted over ‘well fired’ bread which ‘could pose cancer risk’. But maybe you'll be tempted to ditch the latter in favour of Strongbow? The retailer describes the drink as: "Crisp apple cider combined with a refreshing blend of Dark Fruit, delivering Strongbow's signature cut-through refreshment."

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Its portfolio will add 2 million curated images -- in posters, prints, and other art pieces -- to Walmart's home goods business. Art.com allows customers to customize its products online, most of which are printed on-demand after an order is placed -- so it doesn't house large inventories of posters and prints. Annual revenue of $300 million may sound like a big figure, but it would represent only about 0.06% of Walmart's estimated revenue for fiscal 2020, which starts on Feb. 1, 2019. However, $300 million is still higher than the revenue generated by many of Walmart's past purchases. Modcloth, Bonobos, and Moosejaw all generated about $100 million in revenue before being acquired. However, all those acquisitions form part of Walmart's larger defense against Amazon, and the retailer's latest earnings report -- which revealed a 43% year-over-year jump in U.S. e-commerce revenue -- indicates that those efforts are paying off.

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NEW DELHI: US retail major Walmart India Monday appointed Sameer Aggarwal as its chief business officer and Anuj Singh as head - category merchandising. The announcement follows the resignation of executive vice-president (EVP) and chief operating officer (COO) Devendra Chawla. Chawla had joined Walmart India in July last year from Future Consumer -- a part of Kishore Biyani-led Future Group. "Devendra Chawla, EVP and chief operating officer - merchandising, marketing, and e-commerce, has decided to move on to pursue other opportunities outside Walmart India," Walmart India said in a statement.

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Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has been defying critics of its digital strategy. Since its $3.3 billion purchase of Jet.com in 2016, the retailer's online sales have gone from practically nonexistent to a high-growth endeavor. Under the guidance of Jet.com founder Marc Lore, who now leads all of Walmart's domestic e-commerce operations, the company is showing no signs of slowing down in its digital expansion. 2017 was another busy year on the acquisition front; Walmart added four more digital retailers and a same-day-delivery technology start-up to its spoils. But as busy as 2016 and 2017 were, the company's 2018 spending spree has been even more ambitious. The retailer has added two more U.S. online fashion brands to its stable this year, but it made much bigger waves early in the year when it took control of or invested in several international e-commerce ventures.

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Breaking News AlertsAny of the following – labeled Infants' Ibuprofen Concentrated Oral Suspension, USP (NSAID) 50 mg per 1.25 mL – should not be used, and should be returned or discarded immediately: Walmart: Equate brand with a drug code of 49035-125-23. Lot numbers are 00717009A with an expiration date of February 2019; 00717015A with an expiration date of April 2019; and 00717024A with an expiration date of August 2019. No adverse events related to the recalled product have been reported, according to Tris Pharma. However, too much of the medication could cause nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, gastrointestinal pain, ringing in the ears and headache, as well as permanent kidney damage. Please call 770-304-3373 to report a missed paper. If you did not receive your newspaper by 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday through Saturday or by 7 a.m. on Sunday, you can report it by calling our circulation number at 770-304-3373.You must call between 7 - 11 a.m. in order for a circulation representative to deliver a newspaper to you.×.

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A person familiar with the deal told CNBC the size of the acquisition is similar to Walmart's other recent deals, which puts the deal roughly in the neighborhood of $100 million. Art.com had previously raked in roughly $55 million in venture capital, according to Crunchbase, from investors including Saints Capital, Benchmark and Polaris Partners. OYO partners with independent and small hotel owners and works with them to standardize the rooms and services before selling the OYO-branded rooms to travelers through its website and other travel partners. Two of Alphabet's venture arms, CapitalG and GV, are among the backers of a $90 million Series D fund raise for Atlanta-based Pindrop.

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Walmart buys Art.com to take on Amazon in home decor. Walmart announced that it is planning to acquire Art.com, a major online retailer of art and wall decor. The art seller will continue to operate as a standalone online storefront, but some of the platform's more than two million products will be available through Walmart.com, Jet and Hayneedle. The purchase of Art.com marks a continuation of Walmart's online retailer spending spree. Since spending $3 billion to acquire Jet.com in 2016, Walmart has scooped up a number of smaller e-commerce companies including women's clothing shop ModCloth, men's clothing outlet Bonobos, outdoor gear seller Moosejaw, footwear retailer ShoeBuy and home furnishing company Hayneedle.

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From mid-October to Nov. 9, Walmart stock catapulted almost 13%. But in the trailing one-month period, WMT has given up all those gains. In so doing, WMT stock has essentially matched the Dow Jones during this period. And what was the rest of Wall Street so worried about? Walmart stock experienced a noticeable bump-up, as did rival big-box retailers Target (NYSE:TGT) and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY). However, the bears quickly extinguished the optimism like sirens on a frat party. On the surface and without context, a Chinese tech firm and its leadership controversies should have little to do with Walmart stock. But for a retailer which has aspirations for world domination, the CFO arrest is the last thing it needs. For one thing, China has angrily demanded that authorities release Meng.

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Amazon and Walmart are set to become a 'retail duopoly' (WMT, AMZN). Loup Ventures, a venture capital firm with a focus on technology companies, just called for what could turn out to be an even starker development featuring two dominant faces of the changing landscape — Amazon and Walmart. "Amazon is growing its physical retail business to better compete with Walmart; Walmart is growing its online retail business to better compete with Amazon. We believe a retail duopoly is emerging," Andrew Murphy, managing partner at the venture capital firm, said in a post late Thursday. On Thursday, Walmart announced another acquisition in the digital commerce space, buying Art.com, which it described as the world's largest online retailer "in the art and wall décor category," for an undisclosed price. Some of Walmart's notable digital deals since 2016 have included Modcloth, Bonobos, Flipkart, and Bare Necessities.

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