Wal-Mart Stores, a New York-listed retailer, has agreed to acquire Kosmix, a developer of vertical search engines based on specific topics backed by media group Time Warner.
No financial terms were disclosed, although news provider All Things Digital said the price was about $300m.
Kosmix previously raised $20m primarily from Time Warner in December 2008 to take its then-total funding to $55m, including from venture capital firms Accel Partners, DAG Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman founded Kosmix after their first company, Junglee, was acquired by online retailer Amazon in 1998. The founders and Walmart operates retail businesses in 15 countries and e-commerce businesses in nine countries.
The Kosmix team will operate as part of the newly formed @WalmartLabs to create technologies and businesses around social and mobile commerce to help integrate the shopping experience between bricks and mortar stores and e-commerce.
Kosmix’s technology searches and analyzes connections in real-time data streams to deliver personalized insights through TweetBeat for live events, Kosmix.com for social content and RightHealth, a top three health and medical information site.
Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart’s vice-chairman, said: "Social networking and mobile applications are increasingly becoming a part of our customers’ day-to-day lives globally, influencing how they think about shopping, both online and in retail stores."