Today Walmart’s @WalmartLabs announced that it has acquired two companies, adding their capabilities to its technology team.
@WalmartLabs acquired OneOps, in hopes of boosting its Platform as a Service capabilities, and its private cloud efforts. Also acquired is Tasty Labs, a software development firm from Mountain View. The reasoning behind the two small acquisitions is plain, as Walmart notes that the effect of the purchases will be the addition of top-notch staff to its technology teams.
According to the CrunchBase database, @WalmartLabs is not new to buying companies. In 2012, the group picked up a firm by the name of Small Society.
@WalmartLabs isn’t all pure technology however. It has launched a subscription food service, which TechCrunch called an undercutting of startups operating in the same space:
Walmart’s experimentation with subscription-based commerce continues today, with the public launch of Goodies.co, a food subscription service featuring boxes of sample-sized treats shipped monthly. The service is the latest to emerge from @WalmartLabs, the retailer’s Silicon Valley-based innovation lab focused on quickly building, launching, and testing new business models that may or may not make their way to Walmart.com or Walmart stores at a later date.
If this all feels out of step for Walmart, a company generally not part of the broader technology conversation, it’s worth noting that the firm actually has a rich history in the space. Walmart was early in the use of satellite technology to keep its stores and workers in sync, for example.
Certainly, it’s long days since that work was launched in 1987.
Prices of the acquisitions were not disclosed. Tasty Labs raised $3 million in 2010.
Top Image Credit: TheChanel
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