Arkansas Business

Even as Wal-Mart tries to look more like Amazon, investors are digging Amazon's seeming emulation of Wal-Mart's early rise to world dominance.

Amazon's sales during the fourth quarter of last year were more than it made in all of 2008. Wired suggests Amazon's current growth curve resembles that of Wal-Mart in the '90s.

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Amazon may or may not continue to climb its own trajectory toward a half-trillion. But at its current flattening growth rate, Walmart may not get there for years. In the meantime, Amazon’s curve looks like Walmart’s in the 1990s, the decade Walmart pulled away from the competition to become a singular force. Amazon investors might like the idea of getting in on what looks like Walmart in the early days of its rise, even as Walmart tries to make its business look more like Amazon. The question is how long they’ll wait around for Amazon to make money as it goes about trying to rule the world.