WAL-MART STORES INC.
History
Founded by Sam Walton in 1962 as a discount city store in Bentonville, Wal-mart was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on October 31, 1969 as an American public corporation that runs a chain of large, discount department stores. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales.Wal-Mart further expands outside America and operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the UK as ASDA, and in Japan as Seiyu. It has wholly-owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the UK.Presently listed on NYSE, Wal-Mart began trading stock as a publicly-held company on October 1, 1972. According to the 2007 Fortune Global 500, Wal-Mart is the world's largest public corporation by revenue and the largest private employer in the world and the fourth largest utility or commercial employer, trailing the Chinese army, the British National Health Service, and the Indian Railways.Wal-Mart reached a sales milestone in 1979 with 276 stores and 21,000 employees, it reached $1 billion in sales. Having only been in existence for 17 years, the company achieves the quickest ever ascent to the $1 billion milestone.Through out the 1980s, Wal-Mart grows rapidly and by its 25th anniversary in 1987 there were 1,198 stores with sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates. The year 1987 in particular is marked by the completion of the company's satellite network, a $24 million investment linking all operating units of the company with its Bentonville office via two-way voice and data transmission and one-way video communication. In 1988, the founder Sam Walton stepped down as CEO and was replaced by David Glass though he remained as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The years 1990s was marked by expanding i ...