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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. [stckqut]WMT[/stckqut] has long set the standard for efficient supply chain operations that help the company squeeze costs so it can offer continuous discounts to customers. But the formidable capabilities the giant used to dominate traditional brick and mortar rivals will not do for e-commerce.

Amazon.com Inc. [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut], digital from its start in 1994, has buried many traditional retailers online. Wal-Mart, determined to avoid a similar fate, has poured billions of dollars into a digital transformation singular not only for its size and scope — 15 acquisitions and 3,600 new hires – but also for the way its new Silicon Valley epicenter has upended Wal-Mart’s historic approach to technology.

The heart: A massive overhaul project begun in 2012 and named Pangaea, for the prehistoric supercontinent that broke apart to rearrange world geography. For Jeremy King, the diehard engineer who is chief technology officer of Wal-Mart’s global e-commerce operation, Pangaea was a chance to rearrange the world’s biggest company. Mr. King’s team has remade everything from how Wal-Mart’s website works and looks to underlying transaction software, databases and servers, and the backend data center tools to manage it all. Wal-Mart built new cloud infrastructure and data centers and wrote its own search engine in its all-out effort to develop the technological wherewithal to compete with Amazon.

“Pangaea replaces everything,” says Mr. King, in an interview. “My peers, they think I’m out of my mind. Most people don’t replace entire systems in one shot, especially with from-scratch development,” he says. “But given how rapidly this place is changing, we didn’t have time to screw around.”

Source: Wal-Mart Revamps E-Commerce Technology as Amazon Applies Pressure

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Apple [stckqut]AAPL[/stckqut] is planning to unveil its new Apple TV set top box in a little over a week, and it looks like the company may be considering funding its own TV shows to go with its big play to dominate the living room.

The iPhone maker has held preliminary conversations in recent weeks with executives in Hollywood to feel out interest in Apple spearheading efforts to produce original entertainment content, according to a new report that claims Apple is ready to take on Hulu, Netflix [stckqut]NFLX[/stckqut], and Amazon [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut] Prime video.

Source: Apple wants to take on Netflix with its own original programming | Cult of Mac

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Google Inc. [stckqut]GOOG[/stckqut] on Thursday rebuffed the European Union’s demand that it change the way it ranks online comparison-shopping services in its search results, setting up a potentially drawn-out legal battle between the search giant and a regulator empowered to levy billions of euros in fines.

In a formal response Thursday to antitrust charges the EU filed this spring against the California company, Google argued the bloc’s antitrust regulators erred in their analysis of the fast-changing online-shopping business, misconstrued Google’s impact on rival shopping-comparison services, and failed to provide sufficient legal justification for its demands.

In particular, the company argues that the EU’s charges—detailed in a document called a Statement of Objections, or SO—fail to take into account the fast growth of companies like Amazon.com Inc. [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut] and eBay Inc [stckqut]EBAY[/stckqut]. Google executives have said these firms pose a new competitive threat, which undercuts the case that Google has harmed comparison-shopping companies like Nextag and LeGuide.

Source: Google Rebuffs European Union on Antitrust Charges – WSJ

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Just a few companies are driving the gains in major U.S. stock indexes this year, raising fresh concerns about the health of the market’s advance.

Six firms— Amazon.com Inc. [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut], Google Inc. [stckqut]GOOG[/stckqut], Apple Inc. [stckqut]AAPL[/stckqut], Facebook Inc. [stckqut]FB[/stckqut], Netflix Inc. [stckqut]NFLX[/stckqut] and Gilead Sciences Inc.[stckqut]GILD[/stckqut] —now account for more than half of the $664 billion in value added this year to the Nasdaq Composite Index, according to data compiled by brokerage firm JonesTrading.

Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, Gilead and Walt Disney Co. [stckqut]DIS[/stckqut] account for more than all of the $199 billion in market-capitalization gains in the S&P 500.

The concentrated gains are spurring concerns that soft trading in much of the market could presage a pullback in the indexes. Many investors see echoes of prior market tops—including the 2007 peak and the late 1990s frenzy—when fewer and fewer stocks lifted the broader market. The S&P 500 is up 1% this year while the Nasdaq has gained 7.4%.

Source: The Only Six Stocks That Matter

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To be sure, Apple [stckqut]AAPL[/stckqut], Google [stckqut]GOOG[/stckqut], Amazon.com [stckqut]AMZN[/stckqut], and Facebook [stckqut]FB[/stckqut] have each made an indelible mark on our world. And all four tech behemoths continue to push the innovation envelope.

(Motley Fool) asked four Motley Fool contributors to tackle the difficult task of selecting which of these industry leaders would become the most important in the next five years — and why. Here’s what they said.

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Brian Stoffel – Apple

Andres Cardenal – Google

Jeremy Bowman – Amazon

Tim Brugger – Facebook

Source: Apple Inc., Google Inc., Amazon.com Inc., or Facebook Inc.: Who Will Be the Most Important in 2020? (AAPL, AMZN, FB, GOOG, GOOGL)