GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Dec 6, 1999 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Wal-Mart
Stores, the world's largest retailer, and America Online, the Web's
biggest access provider, are negotiating a potentially far-ranging
partnership that could be announced this month, according to an
exclusive report in the Dec. 6 issue of Inter@ctive Week.
The Internet newspaper reports that Wal-Mart, playing a game of
catch-up in the electronic-commerce field, will ink a broad-based deal
to buy banner ads and other online placement on AOL's flagship online
service to drive shoppers to a revamped Wal-Mart online storefront
slated for launch next month.
Industry sources told Inter@ctive Week Senior Writer Steven Vonder Haar
that the retailer, in turn, will use its sprawling chain of Wal-Mart
and Sam's Clubs locations to provide in-store promotions aimed at
generating new subscribers for the AOL service.
Past AOL partnerships with retailers, such as its deal with
BarnesandNoble.com, have led the online service to host outlets for the
retailers, and a similar arrangement with Wal-Mart is possible. It
remains uncertain, however, whether the two industry giants are ready
for a commitment that would so thoroughly intertwine their electronic
commerce fortunes.
Any deal between the two would seem to raise the stakes in online
retailing as Wal-Mart signals a willingness to embrace big partnerships
to strike back at Web rivals such as Amazon.com, writes Vonder Haar.
In addition to being published in Interactive Week's Dec. 6 issue,
complete reporting is posted to the newspaper's Web site,
interactive-week.com.
About Inter@ctive Week Inter@ctive Week, a Ziff-Davis publication, is
the Internet's newspaper with a controlled circulation of 200,000
Internet business and technology professionals. It launched in 1994 as
the first business-to-business paper for today's Internet economy.
About Ziff-Davis Ziff-Davis Inc. is a leading media and marketing
company focused on computing and Internet-related technologies, with
principal platforms in print publishing, trade shows and conferences,
online content and services, television and education. Ziff-Davis
provides global technology companies with marketing strategies for
reaching key decision-makers. Ziff-Davis has two series of common
stock, one which is intended to track the performance of its Internet
business ZDNet (NYSE: ZDZ), and one which is intended to track the
performance of the ZD Group (NYSE: ZD), which includes print
publishing, trade shows and conferences, product testing and online
learning businesses, and an 81.5 percent retained interest in ZDNet.
SOURCE Inter@ctive Week
(C) 1999 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.
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CONTACT: Barry J. Zusman, 212-319-8383 or bzusman@plesser.com, for
Inter@ctive Week
WEB PAGE: interactive-week.com
GEOGRAPHY: New York
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