If Wal-Mart were a Country

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If Wal-Mart were a Country

Submitted by Bill Belew on Thursday, 16 March 2006No Comment

I just read on The China Law Blog that if Wal-Mart were a country it would be China’s eighth largest trading partner!

Holy cow!

But that is not what is alarming according to Dan Harris, China Law Blog’s writer.

People are beginning to think out loud about whether China can buy a ‘hefty chunk of Wal-Mart", or not. And the answer appears to be, "Yes!"

What would Sam Walton think about moving his headquarters from Alabama to Shanghai?

I wrote previously of Lenovo’s $1.25 Billion acquistion of IBM . Is it too much to consider they might go after Wal-Mart?

What do you think?

All, I can think of is I hope they leave Mrs. Field’s Cookies alone.

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China Law Blog said:

China Law Blog does not view a hypothetical (or real, for that matter) purchase of Wal-Mart by a Chinese company as cause for alarm. Indeed, China Law Blog views foreign direct investment (in either direction) as a good thing. It increases the pie for everyone, including the international lawyers.

- 16 March 2006 at 4:44 pm

Bill said:

Thanks for sharing these thoughts.
Hopefully, in the end it will be the consumer who wins out.

- 16 March 2006 at 5:03 pm

Nischal said:

Hi Bill,
Yes, thats the fact. I also learned couple of years ago during one MBA class about Walmart and its growth.

China is deifinitely on the rise.
Have you heard that they will be rolling their cars in US soon.
Same guy who introduced “Yugos”, and “Subaru” to US will also be introducing Chinese cars in American market.

By the way Bill—Walmart headquarter is in Bentonville, Arkansas not Alabama.

Thanks Bill.

- 17 March 2006 at 9:53 am

Bill said:

Right you are! It is Arkansas…not Alabama. What was I thinking? Thank you for correcting me.

- 17 March 2006 at 10:29 am

Andrew said:

The Walmart investment in China is interesting, but fears of a China takeover or buyout are probably unfounded. The IBM deal was negotiated carefully, and would not have worked without top management’s committment and cooperation. If China (or anyone) tried to buy a company like Walmart without management’s cooperation, it would end up being nothing buy destruction of capital on a massive scale.
It would make more sense for a Chinese entitity to simply hire top managers and try to “reverse engineer” a Walmarts in China (Great Wall Market?), but even that is trickier than it seems. Hua Lian has been trying to copy the international retailers here in Shanghai — with very uneven results.

- 20 March 2006 at 6:30 pm

Bill said:

Andrew,
Thank you for your comments.
It is interesting to get your perspective from…am I to suppose you are in Shanghai?

I welcome your comments and insights and of course, your corrections, if I am off the mark.

- 20 March 2006 at 6:58 pm

Andrew said:

You’re right — been in Shanghai for almost 4 years now. Shanghai has just gotten its first Walmart. Would have been here sooner, but they apparently bungled the negotiation with the city and were benched for a long time while they did damage control. That’s the story, anyway. I’m sure they’ll handle things with a lighter touch in their upcoming expansion efforts.

- 21 March 2006 at 1:50 am