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Wal-Mart adds social network firm to boost online businessApr 19, 2011 (CORPORATE IT UPDATE via COMTEX) -- 19 April 2011 -- US retailer Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) said it had reached an agreement to buy a small California-based social networking firm as part of its drive to seek new ways to contact its customers online, the Financial Times reported. Kosmix, which was created in 2005, has designed a platform that filters and organises content published on social networks which is later presented to individual customers. The move is seen by analysts as an attempt by Wal-Mart to join a swelling group of companies shopping for Silicon Valley firms as part of their efforts to secure new ideas and engineering expertise in the face of the growing importance of social networking and mobile Internet. Wal-Mart declined to reveal financial details around the acquisition, saying only that the amount paid for Kosmix was "not material". The retailer said Kosmix would become part of a newly formed Silicon Valley-based group called @WalmartLabs which will develop strategies and products to boost online shopping. Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected] |