Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is planning to launch several new projects this holiday season based on the technology it acquired from the social media startup Kosmix back in April. Kosmix’s platform previously powered multiple services, including a Twitter search site called TweetBeat, a health vertical called RightHealth and a homepage where users could search the web by topic.

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores is again looking into a possible deal to buy Carrefour’s Brazilian unit, according to reports by Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal. According to the reports, the acquisition would enhance Wal-Mart’s position in Latin America.

New York City -- Carrefour SA said Tuesday that it is not in discussions to sell its Brazilian unit to Wal-Mart Stores. Newspaper Valor Economico had reported that the U.S. retailer was in discussions with Carrefour to acquire the French retailer’s Brazilian unit. The acquisition would have made Wal-Mart the largest retailer in Brazil after the acquisition.

Wal-Mart announced that it's expanding its check and card cashing services to accept more types of checks and forms of identification from shoppers.

ShareThis BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Wal-Mart's Acres for America program, in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, said it would donate $100,000 each to five urban wildlife projects around the U.S. The projects are as follows: • Anacostia Watershed Restoration, Washington, D.C., involving installation of a bio-retention facility, or rain garden, to treat poulluted storm water runoff. • Hegewisch Marsh Restoration, Chicago, involving restoration of 30 acres of marshland for endangered bird species. • Bolsa Chica Enhancement Project, Los Angeles, involving resotration and habitrat enhancement for an endangered herb. • Jamaica Bay Salt Marsh Restoration, New York, involving

Bentonville, Ark. -- A Wednesday report by Bloomberg said that Wal-Mart Stores has named Morten Knudsen as CFO for Asia, as the retailer recasts its leadership roles in the region amidst top-heavy turnover. Knudsen, who was previously VP for corporate finance in Asia for Danone, takes the financial chief spot for Wal-Mart Asia effective Sept. 1. Since May, Wal-Mart has lost Japanese chief Toru Noda and three of its top executives in China, including the CFO and COO Roland Lawrence and Rob Cissell, respectively.

Bentonville, Ark. -- The Walton Family Foundation revealed Wednesday that it will donate $50 million to Teach For America, a commitment that stands to nearly double the size of the organization’s teaching ranks. The charity that was created by the founder of Wal-Mart Stores will mete out half of the funds over a three-year period, and will increase the number of teachers to 15,000 by 2015. The remaining half of the donation will support the training of existing Teach for America instructors in seven communities. Teach for America was founded in 1990 by Wendy Kopp, who proposed the idea

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Blockbuster and Netflix may face new competition from Walmart, as the retailer announced that it will launch digital online movie rental and video streaming through its acquired Vudu service. The retailer is now offering 20,000 titles that can be viewed on almost any device with Internet access, from PCs to televisions to Sony's PlayStation3 and other Blu-Ray disc players. This is Wal-Mart’s second try at competing with Netflix, as it previously offered a DVD-by-mail service but it stopped that service in February 2010. "At Walmart, one of our key priorities is to provide a continuous

Wal-Mart has agreed to give women planning to sue for sex bias an extra 90 days to file their cases, a lawyer for the company said. Wal-Mart won a ruling in June that threw out certification of a gender-bias lawsuit representing as many as 1.5 million current and former female workers. The court said the plaintiffs failed to prove Wal-Mart had a nationwide policy that led to gender discrimination.

Chicago -- Wal-Mart Stores said Monday it has launched site work for a new store in Chatham, Ill. The new superstore is expected to create 400 new jobs and open in spring 2012. According to Wal-Mart, it is one of nine new locations now planned in the Chicagoland area and is part of the retailer’s previously announced "Chicago Community Investment Partnership," a five-year plan to open several dozen stores, create approximately 10,000 jobs and 2,000 unionized construction jobs, generate more than $500 million in sales and property taxes and develop charitable partnerships worth $20 million. Construction of the Chatham