Wal-Mart Sharpens E-Commerce Capabilities; Readies For Battle With Amazon

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has reorganized its online retail operations to better compete with online giant Amazon.com Inc. Dubbed by the retailer as Pangaea, and started in 2012, the project has cost the company billions of dollars and involved acquiring 15 technology companies and the hiring of 3,600 new IT professionals. Chief technology officer Jeremy King, who saw the reorganization as an opportunity to “rearrange” the world’s biggest retailer, will determine how the company’s forthcoming $2 billion investment will be spent. Recognizing that search could help propel Wal-Mart’s online business, King pushed Kosmix, a data analytics firm acquired by the retailer in 2011, to build a search technology to replace Endeca, a search engine currently owned by Oracle Corp.