Performance Startup Torbit Acquired by WalmartLabs

Josh hasn't been with Torbit for a while.

The blog post makes it clear this is a tech acquisition and not just an aquihire.

Walmart is one of the largest and most sophisticated consumers of technology in the world, and their needs often outstrip the commercial offerings in the market. They now have a formal Walmart Labs in the Bay Area, but for decades they have had strong in-house technology capabilities.

If Walmart's general tendencies are any indicator, they probably intend to continue their malevolent red neck campaign, to transform America into 'muricuh, with the internet equivalent of gigantic parking lots, and second-rate quasi-99-cent-store wares priced so low as to be disposable so that no one else within the same retail sphere can make a decent business by selling normal quality goods at a "reasonable" price. Also, no Nirvana, because abortion.

...actually, the truth is that they are probably terrified of Amazon's online retail business (which is probably about as toxic to normal retail as Walmart's brick-and-mortar mega stores are).

Walmart is already the world's #1 retailer. The know the e-commerce is a big deal, so now they are trying to become the world's #1 e-retailer as well. Or, to put that equivalently: Walmart is trying to unseat Amazon. They're going about it in a decently smart way, too. Which is to say, they're taking advantage of the fact that they have the resources of the third-largest corporation on the planet to back them up. One aspect of that is that entire companies count as "off-the-shelf" software.

Walmart Labs is actually far away from the HQ that is far away from the HQ. Walmart Corporate split off Walmart.com into a separate group in the Bay Area because there wasn't enough tech talent in Bentonville, Arkansas to meet their needs. Walmart Labs is now a split of a split, in a separate zip code than the Walmart.com offices (but still Bay Area).