The deal will help Walmart’s commerce media business Walmart Connect bring to market new and differentiated ways for advertisers to plan, purchase and measure streaming TV advertising, the retail giant said in a Tuesday (Aug. 4) news release.
“By combining Vibe.co’s intuitive self-service platform with Walmart Connect’s commerce media capabilities, Walmart will make connected TV advertising more accessible while helping brands connect with customers across the shopping journey and achieve greater impact from their advertising investments,” the release added.
Founded in 2021, Vibe.co’s self-service platform lets advertisers launch streaming TV campaigns across premium publishers. Walmart announced the planned acquisition in June. The company did not provide a price tag for the purchase, though a Wall Street Journal report put it at $1.4 billion.
Writing about the deal soon after, PYMNTS contended that the purchase turns Walmart’s $2.3 billion Vizio acquisition in 2024 “into more than a hardware bet.”
The former company offers Walmart a way to display advertising in the living room, while the latter provides self-service software allowing smaller businesses to purchase connected-television ads.
“Walmart Connect supplies shopper data and the ability to compare ad exposure with purchases online and in stores,” the report said. “Think of Walmart as trying to own not only the shopping mall, but also the television station, billboard company and cash register inside it.”
Advertising lets a retailer earn more from a customer relationship without carrying more inventory, PYMNTS added. Walmart’s global ad business grew 46% to almost $6.4 billion in fiscal 2026, though Amazon’s exceeded $70 billion over the latest 12 months leading to June. It’s a wide gap, but Walmart’s growth and acquisitions demonstrate that it wants advertising to become a key profit engine and not a side business.
“Shoppable television is an important bridge,” the report added. “Instead of seeing a patio set during a program and searching for it later, a viewer can move toward a purchase from the screen, while the retailer can tell the brand whether the ad produced a sale.”
Independent analyst Andrew Lipsman called the overlap between retail media and connected television “a mega story in 2026,” while NScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon described the value in more direct terms: “Definitive attribution makes the ads far more valuable to brands.”
