Wal-Mart to open fewer stores
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will slow the pace of new store openings next year in what analysts called a nod to Wall Street calls for greater focus on rekindling faltering sales and earnings growth at its existing 6,700 stores worldwide.
Wal-Mart also told analysts Monday, the first day of its two-day investor meeting, that it would sharply reduce the rise in capital spending next year, helped by a flattening in inflation of construction and land costs and by opening fewer new stores.
Wal-Mart said it remains committed to expansion. But analysts said the change was a step toward meeting Wall Street expectations that Wal-Mart, after years of rapid growth, now focuses on improving sales and profitability at existing stores to revive a dormant share price.
“It’s somewhat of a shift. Is it a major earthquake shift? No. But it’s the start of a shift where they could indeed move to capitalize on what has already been built,” said retail analyst Don Gher from Coldstream Capital Management in Bellevue, Wash.
•IBM Corp. alleged in two lawsuits Monday that important components of Amazon.com Inc.’s massive retailing Web site were developed and patented many years earlier at IBM.
Amazon, which this year will sell $10 billion worth of everything from books and CDs to pet supplies and jewelry, is accused of infringing on five IBM patents. IBM says the technologies covered by the patents govern how the site recommends products to customers, serves up advertising and stores data.
Some of the patents were first filed in the 1980s, when IBM created back-end technology for Prodigy, an early online service that grew out of a joint venture between IBM and Sears, Roebuck & Co. One such patent is titled “Ordering Items Using an Electronic Catalog.”
Hundreds of other companies have licensed the same patents, and IBM repeatedly has tried to negotiate licensing deals with Amazon, company officials there say.
Amazon declined to comment.
•Google Inc.‘s stock price hit a new high of $484.64 Monday, riding the latest wave of investor euphoria celebrating the Internet search leader’s moneymaking prowess.
The buying frenzy pushed Google’s shares beyond their previous peak of $475.11, reached in early January.
The company’s market value also briefly surpassed $150 billion for the first time before backtracking late in the day. The shares closed at $480.71 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, up $21.11, or 4.6 percent.
Investors have been boosting their stakes in Google since the company reported its third-quarter profit nearly doubled, exceeding analysts’ estimates. The stock price has climbed by 13 percent since the release of third-quarter earnings late Thursday.