It’s no coincidence that less than a month after Amazon Prime Video made its advertising tier the default for its subscribers in January, its major retail rival unveiled a deal to buy TV maker Vizio to help power its own foray into raking in connected TV ad dollars. Now, following a monthslong regulatory waiting period, that $2.3 billion-dollar buy has now closed.
As for the deal rationale, it sets up the Doug McMillon-run Walmart to be a bigger player in the advertising world that is being increasingly reshaped by Amazon. “The margins generally are pretty low on TVs today, the hardware,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey told a BofA investor event in June. “A lot of the money that’s being made there is in the software part of that, and we want to take advantage of that.”
Vizio, and the data from its 19 million accounts, will help give Walmart a foothold in a battlefield that Roku, Samsung, Apple TV and, yes, Amazon (with its Fire TV) compete on. Walmart says that its retail media business Walmart Connect already grew 26 percent in its third quarter.
“Vizio offers great products at great prices that customers love. They’ve always put customers at the center of their business – and that’s core to Walmart’s values and the omnichannel experiences we’re excited to roll out,” said Seth Dallaire, executive vice president and chief growth officer, Walmart U.S. “Vizio has also expertly changed their business over time, like building and quickly scaling a profitable advertising business. Pairing it with Walmart Connect will be impactful and allow us to invest in our business even further on behalf of our customers.”
“Since the inception of Vizio, our mission has been to provide incredible value, great technology, and award-winning innovation,” added William Wang, CEO and founder of Vizio, who will now report to Dallaire. “Today, with the tremendous number of resources from Walmart, we will continue to further accelerate that mission around the best home entertainment experience.”
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