5 Companies Owned by WMT

Walmart, Inc. (WMT) is the largest brick-and-mortar retailer in the world with about 11,500 locations in 27 countries worldwide. That’s a dramatic change from nearly six decades ago, when Sam Walton opened a single discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. Eight years later, the company went public and rapidly expanded. Today, the company operates an empire of brick-and-mortar stores under the Walmart name, as well as its membership-only Sam’s Club outlets, and a growing e-commerce business. In Walmart’s FY 2020, ended January 31, 2020, the company generated $524.0 billion in revenue and consolidated net income of $14.9 billion. As of this writing, Walmart has a market cap of $338.4 billion.

Recent Walmart acquisitions have been aimed at sharply expanding its presence in e-commerce to fend off digital retailing giant Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). In 2018, for example, Walmart ventured abroad and paid $16 billion for a majority stake in Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company. Below, we’ll look at 5 major Walmart acquisitions. Walmart does not provide breakdowns of the revenue that each acquisition contributes to the company.

Jet.com

• Type of Business: E-commerce
• Acquisition price: $3.3 billion
• Date purchased: September 19, 2016

Founded in 2014, Jet.com is one of the fastest-growing U.S. e-commerce companies. Walmart acquired Jet.com for about $3.3 billion in 2016 to compete with Amazon.com. Prior to the acquisition, Jet.com was an independent company. As part of the deal, Jet.com founder Marc Lore joined the Walmart executive leadership team. Aided by its new e-commerce business, Walmart reported FY 2020 U.S. e-commerce net sales of $21.5 billion, up 36.9% year-over-year (YOY).

ShoeBuy

• Type of Business: E-commerce
• Acquisition price: $70 million
• Date purchased: December 30, 2016

ShoeBuy, now rebranded as Shoes.com, was launched in 1999 as an online footwear retailer. The company was purchased by IAC in 2006 (disclaimer: IAC is the parent company of Investopedia). In 2016, Walmart subsidiary Jet.com acquired ShoeBuy from IAC for approximately $70 million. This acquisition took place just months after Walmart acquired Jet.com. This deal marks a key expansion for Jet.com into footwear retailing, an area previously not represented by the online retailer. It also represents a move by Walmart to provide a comprehensive e-commerce experience similar to Amazon.

Parcel

• Type of business: Deliveries
• Acquisition price: Undisclosed
• Date purchased: September 29, 2017

Parcel is a technology-based package delivery company that uses routing algorithms to facilitate same-day delivery of meal kits, groceries, e-commerce products, and more. The company, founded in 2013, was independent at the time of its acquisition by Walmart. For Walmart, the deal represented a way to boost its online infrastructure and delivery capabilities, particularly in New York City, which is among the most popular markets for its online retail branches.

Bonobos

• Type of business: Online apparel brand
• Acquisition price: $310 million
• Date purchased: June 16, 2017

Launched in 2007 as an internet-based apparel brand, Bonobos eventually expanded in 2012 to include a growing number of brick-and-mortar locations as well. The company was independent at the time of its acquisition by Walmart in mid-2017. After the takeover, Walmart appointed Bonobos founder and CEO Andy Dunn to lead Walmart’s effort to help boost sales of online consumer brands. The Bonobos deal came a few months after Walmart had acquired another online apparel company, ModCloth, although it later it was sold.

Moosejaw

• Type of business: Online outdoor retailer
• Acquisition price: $51 million
• Date purchased: February 13, 2017

Specializing in outdoor recreation gear and apparel, Moosejaw was founded in 1992 and ultimately developed a retail presence primarily online. At the time of its purchase by Walmart in 2017, Moosejaw counted a number of private equity firms as major stakeholders. Under Walmart, Moosejaw was allowed to operate as a standalone brand. It retained its site and physical stores, as well as its operations in Michigan. The deal expanded Walmart’s presence in the market for outdoor market recreational gears at a time when Amazon was also growing rapidly.

Walmart Diversity & Inclusiveness Transparency

As part of our effort to improve the awareness of the importance of diversity in companies, we have highlighted the transparency of Walmart’s commitment to diversity, inclusiveness, and social responsibility. The below chart illustrates how Walmart reports the diversity of its management and workforce. This shows if Walmart discloses data about the diversity of its board of directors, C-Suite, general management, and employees overall, across a variety of markers. We have indicated that transparency with a ✔.