Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced that it was purchasing South Africa’s Massmart Holding’s Ltd. In a deal worth approximately $4.6 billion Wal-Mart is making its first foray into Africa. Massmart is South Africa’s second largest retailer and primarily focuses on food sales. With this deal it will mark Wal-Marts biggest deal since its purchase of UK supermarket chain Adsa for $11 billion.  This move is quite smart on Wal-Marts behalf, as stated in the article they have been slumping in the US market due to the recession. This diversification of markets should help Wal-Mart retain a strong share price. As well this move helps for future moves into the growing market of sub-saharan Africa, which is virtually untapped by western retailers. In addition to this move Wal-Mart also displayed great interest in moving into other foreign markets such as Columbia and Japan. Overall, this move and possible future moves into foreign markets should help Wal-Mart greatly as it will allow for Wal-Mart to weather economic storms much better than their competition.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-27/wal-mart-offers-to-buy-south-africa-s-massmart-holdings-for-21-08-a-share.html