Sam Walton could very well be smiling down on one of his disciples right now after hitting a dinger out of the ballpark.
Walmart (WMT) CEO Doug McMillon is in fact that baseball smasher. In arguably his most important deal (and there have been quite a few to speak of) since taking over as CEO in February 2014, McMillon over the weekend signed off on a partnership with Oracle that will find it as an investor in social media juggernaut TikTok. Walmart didn’t disclose how much it will pay for its 7.5% stake in the new TikTok Global (reports have Walmart and Oracle shelling out a combined $12 billion for their total 20% stake).
But the dollar amount doesn’t really matter, what does is that McMillon — who will be one of five executives on TikTok Global’s board — ponied up. Really, who gives a darn? What, you want Walmart to take those billions of dollars and invest it in opening 500 Supercenters by 2025 in the saturated U.S. retail market? If you are a Walmart shareholder of course that’s not what you should want. That would be an awful use of shareholder capital.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Omni Talk is the retail blog for retailers, written by retailers. Chris Walton and Anne Mezzenga founded Omni Talk in 2017 and have quickly turned it into one of the fastest growing blogs in retail. 