News

Walmart purchases startup Kosmix

April 18, 2011

According to NASDAQ.com, Walmart will acquire Kosmix Corp. to accelerate the company's social and mobile commerce offerings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Kosmix, based in Mountain View, Calif., filters and organizes content in social networks to connect people with real-time information. The startup’s Tweetbeat Firsthand plug-in scans Web pages for any references to specific people or organizations with Twitter accounts. The plug-in then provides readers with the latest tweets from those people or groups.

Walmart said the founders, Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaramanand, will work with the new @WalmartLabs unit, and help the company's to integrate the shopping experience between bricks-and-mortar stores and e-commerce.

"We are expanding our capabilities in today's rapidly growing social commerce environment," said Eduardo Castro-Wright, Walmart's vice chairman. "Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers' day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores."