LITTLE ROCK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to provide more detail about potential threats to its business from lawsuits and from cyber-attacks, according to regulatory filings released this week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In a series of exchanges between the SEC and the Bentonville-based company in June and July, the regulatory agency sought additional information on both topics.
A June 8 letter from SEC accounting branch chief Andrew Mew to Charles Holley, Wal-Mart’s chief financial officer, requested that the company “either provide a range of loss, which may be aggregated for all of the litigation matters for which you are able to estimate the amount of the loss or range of possible loss, or provide explicit disclosure for each of the litigation matters that you are unable to estimate the loss or range of possible loss and the reasons you are unable to provide an estimate.”
In a June 22 response, Wal-Mart said it has complied with disclosure requirements and that in some cases, the company has been unable to estimate a range of possible losses.
Wal-Mart faces multiple shareholder lawsuits resulting from a purported bribery scheme in Mexico that The New York Times reported in April. It is also being investigated for possible violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in relation to that matter. Wal-Mart said it would update disclosures on the investigation if any material development occurred.
As for cyber-attacks, Wal-Mart said it is constantly a target of computer hackers but that, to date, it has fended off attempts to gain access to the information of customers, employees and suppliers.
Failure to protect that information, the company said, “could cause us to incur substantial additional costs and to become subject to litigation, and could adversely affect our operating results.”
Wal-Mart’s stock closed Tuesday at $74.31, up 72 cents, or nearly 1 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded between $48.31 and $75.24 in the past year.
Business, Pages 21 on 08/09/2012