Should Walmart Inc. merge with Home Depot Inc.? There may be a container ship worth of reasons for them to consider it. Walmart and Home Depot are among U.S. retailers that have grown so frustrated with the limited space on container ships and rising cost of ocean shipping that they've begun chartering their own vessels to speed the journey from factories on one side of the world to consumers on the other. Costco Wholesale Corp. also resorted to this option recently rather than risk having key items out of stock heading into the holidays. Cutting down on costs to bolster profitability is one of the chief reasons companies pursue mergers and acquisitions, and so it's quite possible that sustained supply-chain bottlenecks will spur some previously unfathomable unions.
Read the whole thing. Nice Neighborhood, Except for the Houses — Tyler Cowen For Tesla, Facebook and Others, AI's Flaws Are Getting Harder to Ignore — Parmy Olson Japan, a Sleeping Giant of Global Affairs, Is Waking Up — Hal Brands California's Smart Plan to Let Homeowners Be Homebuilders — Virginia Postrel America's Superstar Cities Aren't What They Used to Be — Justin Fox Facebook Makes Profits, Shareholders Complain — Matt Levine Hunger or Squid? The Game China's Developers Are Really Playing — Shuli Ren Central Banks Want to Issue Digital Coins, But There's a Major Trade-Off — Paul J. Davies International Travel Is Easier Than You Might Think — Brooke Sutherland This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion published this week based on web readership. |
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