Facebook, Walmart chiefs 2-day meeting to "deepen" relationship…

In a unique move aimed at adding the biggest retail player to his list of friends, Mark Zuckerberg and his senior management team will spend two days at Walmart’s Bentonville home office this week, meeting with executives of the world's largest retailer and discussing ways to "deepen" their relationship.

Many investors and analysts believe the company could tap into a new source of revenue by playing a bigger role in online retail sales, perhaps taking a cut of transactions generated on its social network.
Walmart's Facebook page has more than 17 million fans and expanding its reach online is key for Walmart as shoppers increasingly shop via their computers, tablets and smartphones.

Implications

1. With each one formidable in its own right, this potential linking has to produce mega-synergies for the two giants, with knock-on repercussions for us all…
2. The move is partly a case of Walmart playing e-catchup with ‘Amazing Amazon’ whose online sales of $48bn last year were, or should have been, a surprise to most rivals, traditional and online…
3. It also strengthens the case for Saturday morning NAM trade-strategy meetings, starting like Walmart at 0730 to maximise output, away from the distractions of a NAM’s Mon-Fri 9-5 weekday-job?

However, supplier-CEOs eager to retrieve this ‘down time’ should bear in mind that since the passing of Sam, even Walmart’s Saturday morning meetings are down to one per month, and the presence of celebrity guests like Harrison Ford, Emilio Estevez and "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson; singers including Sheryl Crow and Jewel; and Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson, has been required to add extra appeal…. 

Have a turbo-friending weekend, from the NamNews Team!