Breaking News: Walmart to close 269 stores, lay off 16,000 employees

Retail giant Walmart Stores, Inc. on 15 January 2016 announced to close 269 stores and lay off 16,000 employees, including 6,000 of them outside the U.S.It would close its 154 stores in the U.S. and 115 others abroad. 

The company is shutting down 60 stores in Brazil, a market in which the world’s largest retailer has made a big push in recent years.

The company said it had already been able to “relocate” most of the employees affected by the store closings to other points of sale. 

The other 55 stores to be closed outside the United States are mostly “small, loss-making stores in other Latin American markets”.

More information: Walmart

Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2014, as well as the biggest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees. 

Walmart is a family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family. 

Sam Walton's heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through their holding company, Walton Enterprises, and through their individual holdings. 

It is also one of the world's most valuable companies by market value, and is also the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. In 2015, it generated 59.8 percent of its US$288 billion sales in the U.S. from its grocery business.