A Walmart Lifer Will Become the Retail Giant’s Next CEO

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Alex Ossola (0:32)

What Walmart's longtime CEO stepping down means for the company's future. Plus, what's driving yet another volatile day in markets. And how online retailer Quince is scraping the internet in its quest to sell you cheaper cashmere sweaters.

Chavie Lieber (0:47)

A lot of these digital first fashion brands that are really big now, they all have a very similar model where they're able to predict what shoppers are going to buy and then they operate in real time.

Alex Ossola (0:58)

It's Friday, November 14th. I'm Alex Ossola for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM Edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon is stepping down after over a decade in the role, a change at the top of the country's largest retailer and private employer. Under his leadership, Walmart went from a struggling retailer with stagnant sales to an e-commerce rival to companies like Amazon with diverse revenue streams. This is McMillon in an interview with the Stanford Graduate School of Business earlier this year.

Doug McMillon (1:37)

We eventually figured out what we wanted to do with e-commerce, and now the growth rate's gone back up. We have a more sustainable business model, and now we make money from membership, advertising, and some other things that flow from that e-commerce investment.

Alex Ossola (1:49)

Walmart says John Furner, company lifer and head of its US division, will become the new Walmart CEO in February. For more on the transition and what it means for the company, WSJ reporter Chip Cutter, who covers management, joins me now. Chip, under McMillon, Walmart raised wages for its workers, grew revenue, went big into e-commerce. How did he reshape the company?

Chip Cutter (2:10)

McMillon really tried to sort of reorient Walmart for the digital age. So he made a number of big acquisitions. Under McMillon, e-commerce sales took off. There was also an attempt by McMillon to really change the image of Walmart and to change what it meant to work there. Walmart is, of course, the nation's largest private employer. He increased hourly wages, and he tried to sort of increase employee retention to make it a place that people want it to work and stay. And I think a lot of his efforts, which have been rewarded by Wall Street, have been focused on how do I modernize this company and just reflect sort of the way that people shop and consume now.

Alex Ossola (2:47)

Walmart hadn't indicated recently that a CEO transition was imminent. Does the change at the top suggest any shift in Walmart's strategy?

Chip Cutter (2:56)

It's hard to say, and of course, Furner has been a company employee for a long time now. So I think from the outside, it certainly is expected that Walmart will continue on its trajectory. And company executives have also been talking recently about how they do want to change the company to sort of meet this AI moment that we're in recently. Walmart recently hired head of AI Acceleration and McMillon had said that the company was bracing for AI to change, quote, literally every job. So Walmart knows that AI is going to change shopping, it's going to change work, and I think a lot of the company's leaders are focused on that. We can certainly expect the next CEO to sort of follow that and to sort of help put some of those plans in place.

Alex Ossola (3:35)

How are Wall Street and investors reacting to this news?

Chip Cutter (3:38)

McMillon has had just an incredible run. Shares have risen more than 400% on a total return basis under his tenure. Certainly Furner is somebody who is known to the Wall Street community. We'll have to see where he takes the company from here.

Alex Ossola (3:52)

That was Journal Reporter Chip Cutter. Thank you, Chip.

Chip Cutter (3:54)

Thank you.

Alex Ossola (3:58)

President Trump says he will ask the Justice Department and the FBI to launch an investigation into Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with former President Bill Clinton and other Democrats. Posting on social media this morning, Trump said Democrats were focusing on his ties to Epstein to distract from their own political vulnerabilities. The president also says the investigation should examine JPMorgan Chase. A representative for Clinton didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Attorney General Pam Bondi says she asked Jay Clayton, the US. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to take the lead on the request. A JPMorgan Chase spokeswoman said the bank regrets its association with Epstein but that it didn't help him commit any, quote, heinous acts. Democrats have sought to highlight ties between Trump and Epstein, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing for the release of the Justice Department's investigative files into Epstein. A vote on that in the House of Representatives is scheduled for next week. And in other news on the Trump administration, a classified Justice Department brief authorizing strikes on drug smuggling votes describes fentanyl as a potential chemical weapons threat. That's according to a member of the House and another person familiar with the memo. The document outlines the Trump administration's legal justification for the continuing military operation. It argues that President Trump's designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorists makes them legitimate military targets. The Pentagon has carried out 20 known strikes against votes it says are carrying illegal drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific, killing at least 80 people. It has not made public any evidence supporting claims about the vessels since the first attack in September.