Boxed-in unicorn

SPENDING $3.3 billion on an unprofitable business might seem an undisciplined splurge. By buying Jet.com, a shopping website, Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, has joined the ranks of investors betting on so-called “unicorns”, or private startups valued at over $1 billion. The acquisition is the most expensive deal ever for an American e-commerce startup, and a sign of just how worried Walmart executives are by the rise of Amazon. It’s also an admission that despite heavy internal investment, the Bentonville giant’s own site, Walmart.com, is nowhere near enough.