Julie Chang

Walmart reported around $713 billion in sales in the year through the end of January, about $4 billion lower than Amazon.

People familiar with the matter say Walmart leadership prepared for years to lose the title, shifting its focus to becoming America's favorite place to shop over being the biggest or growing fast.

An Apple 4a and two smart glasses should be seen as a boon for Essilor Luxottica and not a threat to its position in the booming category.

That's according to an analyst at Stifel.

Shares in the Franco-Italian eyewear giant took a hit this week over a report that Apple is gearing up to begin production of its own model of AI-powered glasses as early as the end of this year.

That could create a rival to Essilor Luxottica's models in partnership with tech giant Meta, but the analyst said an entry by Apple and other tech firms into the market should speed up consumer awareness and expand the total addressable market.

And a former Google employee accused of stealing trade secrets related to the company's Pixel phones was indicted yesterday.

The employee worked as a hardware engineer for the company from 2019 to 2023.

She was charged with six theft-related charges, and her husband and sister were also indicted on similar charges.

Companies are facing increased security threats in an era of rapidly evolving technology.

The Google case is the third high-profile incident in recent years involving misappropriation of the company's trade secrets.

According to data provider Lex Machina, federal trade secret cases in the U.S.

rose 20% last year to around 1,500, the highest figure in at least a decade.

And that's your TMB Tech Minute.

We'll be back this afternoon with more.

Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, February 19th.

I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal.

West Virginia's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Apple today, alleging its iCloud platform facilitates the storage and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

Here's your morning TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, February 19th.

I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal.