VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Earlier this week, hundreds of corporate and support jobs will be laid off at Wal-Mart Stores. The cuts come at time Wal-Mart is investing in billions to strengthen its e-commerce for better competition with Amazon.com and Target, giving hundreds of thousands of in-store workers raises.

Wal-Mart Stores will begin charging fees to almost all vendors for stocking their items in new stores and for warehousing inventory, raising pressure on suppliers as the world’s largest retailer battles higher costs from wage hikes.

If you still have Disney's Frozen Castle and Ice Palace Playset on your holiday gift list this year, you may already be out of luck. With Christmas approaching, the $119 toy - made by Mattel Inc - is sold out. Of course, you can find it at resellers for about $225 and even as high as $700 on eBay.

Panasonic Corp (6752.T) plans to sell its Sanyo television unit in the U.S., which supplies sets to Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N), to Funai Electric (6839.T) as it steps back from unprofitable businesses, the Nihon Keizai newspaper reported.

Determined not to repeat a holiday season that left millions of packages delivered too late and customers seething, United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) and FedEx Corp (FDX.N) are investing heavily in new infrastructure - but the continued dynamic growth of e-commerce will test those efforts.

U.S. companies are increasingly less optimistic about the business outlook in China, and see growing competition from local rivals who get preferential treatment as a key challenge, a survey showed on Friday.

Ascent's solar powered chargers for iPhones and Galaxy 4 would now be available in Wal-Mart stores after an agreement was signed between the two companies.