Report: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu, raising stakes in Amazon rivalry |
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Report: Wal-Mart to buy Vudu, raising stakes in Amazon rivalry
Amazon.com and Wal-Mart are engaged in a fierce e-commerce battle, with both retail giants vying for the mantle "Wal-Mart of the Web." The companies have engaged in back-and-forth online discounting battles over top-selling books, DVDs, and other products. Now there are signs that Wal-Mart is getting more serious about an area that Amazon is targeting as well: internet movies.
The New York Times reports Wal-Mart is buying Vudu, a Silicon Valley startup that delivers internet movies and TV shows to HDTVs and Blu-ray disc players. Such a service could push Wal-Mart into competition with companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, which are all have streaming movie offerings.
Wal-Mart — which like Amazon derives a big chunk of its sales from physical DVDs — has an interest in staying ahead of the consumer migration to digital entertainment. The Vudu deal could add a whole new dimension to Wal-Mart's rivalry with Amazon, which is developing its own Video on Demand service (and is periodically rumored to be interested in buying Netflix for its online video business).
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