LITTLE ROCK — Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive officer of social media giant Facebook, was in Bentonville on Friday to meet with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executives, multiple sources said.
He also was scheduled to be at Wal-Mart’s monthly Saturday meeting at the company’s headquarters today, they said.
Both companies issued statements Friday that included complimentary remarks about each other without specifically confirming Zuckerberg’s attendance. The Saturdaymorning meeting includes updates on the retailer’s various business units.
“Wal-Mart is an important partner for Facebook and we look forward to working together to deepen that relationship. In addition, we admire the company Wal-Mart has built over the past 50 years and believe we can learn from their experience and management team about building a strong, durable and valuable company for the long term,” a Facebook spokesman said in an email.
David Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the company appreciates and values its strategic partnership with Facebook, which it credits with helping test new and innovative products and technologies to reach customers.
“Wal-Mart has been on Facebook since October 2009 and we continue to have one of the most active fan bases with more than 17 million fans,” he said in a statement. “Facebook is the No. 1 most-used social media site among our shoppers so it makes sense for us to continue using this platform to drive our business, listen to our customers and engage with meaningful dialogue with them.”
Carol Spieckerman, president and chief executive of Bentonville retail strategy firm Newmarketbuilders, said many CEOs have visited Wal-Mart simply to share ideas.
“It doesn’t necessarily portend anything beyond that,” she said.
But she added that leveraging unstructured data from social media, rather than just point-ofsale data, could provide “a much better picture of people’s lives.”
“That’s really the next frontier for retailers,” she said. “They’re looking at ways to monetize the massive amount of data. I think they could have a lot to talk about.”
She said her firm uses social media extensively.
James Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart’s board of directors, also serves on Facebook’s board.
Wal-Mart’s stock closed Friday at $72.25, up 72 cents, or 1 percent, on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded between $48.31 and $73.46 in the past year.
Facebook’s stock closed at $28.76, down 24 cents, or 0.83 percent, on the Nasdaq.
Since the stock began trading May 18, its highest closing price of $38.23 occurred on the first day and its lowest price was $25.87.
Business, Pages 25 on 07/21/2012