Amazon.com Inc. shares surged more than 23% yesterday after rumors surfaced that the online retailer was in talks with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to form some kind of strategic e-commerce deal, according to a Rueters report.
Amazon’s shares have lost about 83% of their value over the past year with a 52-week range of $9.56 to $75.25. Wal-Mart shares were up less than a percent.
Over the weekend, Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, citing executives close to the talks, reported that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos had met with Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott to hammer out a deal in which Amazon would handle Wal-Mart’s online strategy, as well as develop a presence in the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer’s more than 4,500 stores, the report said.
Under the terms of the deal, Amazon would receive a cash injection and a percentage of the sales it makes through Wal-Mart, the paper reported. Although an equity investment by Wal-Mart into Amazon would be unlikely, it said.
Wal-Mart’s fourth-quarter sales topped $56.5 billion it relaunched Walmart.com in November 2000. In February, Walmart.com laid off 24 employees, or 10% of its staff, in an effort to conserve cash and focus its efforts on the site’s technology.
In January, Amazon.com announced that it was laying off 1,300 workers, or about 15% of its staff. Also in January, Bezos promised the company, which has lost money in all five years in existence, would turn a profit by year’s end.
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