Company News: Wal-Mart, Verizon, Time Warner, Microsoft, News Corp.

Wal-Mart Stores is anxious to find ways to compete with Amazon.com’s network of independent merchants, which sell millions of products on the online giant’s website. According to minutes obtained by Bloomberg News from a Feb. 1 officers’ meeting led by U.S. CEO Bill Simon, Walmart considers Amazon’s Marketplace platform the e-tailer’s “number one weapon.” Four years after starting its own version of Marketplace, Walmart has signed up only six outside merchants, compared with Amazon’s 2 million. A Walmart spokesman says its Marketplace “is a big part of our expansion.” The retailer continues to pour capital into physical stores, planning about 130 new supercenters in 2013.

Verizon Communications, eager to increase its control of its wireless joint venture with Vodafone Group, has weighed options that range from buying out Vodafone’s stake to a full merger of the two companies, say people familiar with the situation. Vodafone owns a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless, the most profitable and fastest-growing major mobile phone company in the U.S. The carrier added a record 2.1 million subscribers last quarter, eclipsing the growth of AT&T and other rivals.