Walmart gets India's OK for Flipkart stake
Walmart Inc.'s $16 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Flipkart, India's largest e-commerce firm, gained approval Wednesday from India's antitrust agency.
Walmart announced in May that it had agreed to buy a 77 percent stake in Flipkart. The move represents the largest deal in the Bentonville retailer's history.
The proposed acquisition has stirred protest in India, where business groups have said it would create unfair competition and force the country's myriad local convenience stores out of business.
The Flipkart deal comes during Walmart's efforts to compete with Amazon.com for global markets. In recent years, Walmart has acquired e-commerce platforms such as Jet.com while shifting its presence in international markets.
Though Walmart has 21 wholesale stores in India, it can't sell directly to consumers there because of government restrictions on foreign businesses. Acquiring a stake in Flipkart gives the company direct access to an e-commerce market expected to reach about $200 billion by 2027, according to Morgan Stanley.
-- Serenah McKay
Acxiom to release quarterly earnings
Acxiom Corp. will release its first-quarter earnings report today after the market closes, the Conway technology firm said.
The management team will conduct a conference call at 3:30 p.m. to discuss the financial results. The call can be accessed at (833) 287-0802 and the identification code is 709-6738.
Interpublic Group of Companies, a New York-based publicly traded advertising company, announced in July that it has agreed to pay $2.3 billion to buy Acxiom's major business line, Acxiom Marketing Solutions. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
-- David Smith
State index up 0.73; Dillard's climbs 3%
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 0.73 to 449.31 Wednesday.
Shares of Dillard's Inc. rose 3 percent in heavy volume and Acxiom shares rose 2.4 percent.
Murphy Oil Corp. shares fell 2.6 percent. USA Truck fell 1 percent.
"Equities sold off in the last half hour of the trading session to close relatively flat although the Nasdaq Composite rose slightly for a seventh straight day as the energy and consumer staples sectors underperformed the broader market," said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.
Total volume for the index was 14.8 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 08/09/2018