Wal-Mart lays off 450 from headquarters

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. laid off 450 workers at its headquarters as the world's largest retailer attempts to become more nimble so that it can better compete with the likes of Amazon.com. There are more than 18,000 people who work at the headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., a close-knit community in northwest Arkansas. The cuts were across all areas, from finance to global e-commerce. The layoffs follow months of rumors about them and they arrived less than two months after Wal-Mart trimmed its annual earnings outlook as profits fell. That is partly because of investments Wal-Mart has made in e-commerce as well as higher wages for hourly workers.

Google's parent company is now Alphabet

Google Inc. completed the move to reorganize as Alphabet, and its stock will begin trading as Alphabet on the Nasdaq under the same tickers "GOOG" and "GOOGL" on Monday. Each share of Google will be automatically converted to Alphabet stock. Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said in August it would create a new company that would oversee both its highly lucrative Internet business and its growing flock of other ventures like building self-driving cars and researching ways to prolong human life. The goal is to provide more independence for divisions like Nest, which makes Internet-connected home appliances.

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