Walmart Wraps $2.3 Billion Vizio Purchase to Bolster Retail Media

Walmart has completed its $2.3 billion purchase of smart television maker Vizio.

The deal, aimed at bolstering the company’s retail media offerings, closed after a federally required waiting period expired, the retail giant announced Tuesday (Dec. 3).

“The acquisition of Vizio and its SmartCast Operating System allows Walmart to serve its customers in new ways to enhance their shopping journeys,” Walmart said in a news release.

“It will also bring to market new and differentiated ways for advertisers to meaningfully connect with customers at scale and boost product discovery, helping brands achieve greater impact from their advertising investments with Walmart Connect — the company’s retail media business in the U.S.”

The two companies announced the deal in February, noting at the time that Vizio had seen 400% growth in active accounts since 2018, with more than 18 million active accounts and a growing advertising business.

The acquisition was subject to regulatory approval, and at one point drew the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Several privacy and antitrust groups had asked the FTC and Department of Justice to look into the merger, citing concerns that the deal could intensify issues surrounding market concentration, data hoarding and consumer privacy.

These groups had written to the regulators, arguing that the acquisition could give Walmart significantly greater ability to extract, monetize and exploit consumer data, while also consolidating Walmart’s market power to the detriment of retail competition and, ultimately, consumers.

Writing about the deal earlier this year, PYMNTS noted that — in addition to accelerating Walmart’s advertising as it moves into the streaming media space — it could also bolster Walmart+. That’s the retail giant’s subscription service, which was introduced in 2020 to compete with Amazon Prime and other subscription heavyweights.

“Among the benefits Walmart+ offers subscribers is access to video streamer Paramount+,” PYMNTS wrote. “In other words, the recent acquisition may offer Walmart two avenues to gather revenue and data from consumers, through Vizio products and Paramount+.”

And if one of Walmart’s goals is to strengthen its subscription business, that report continued, then Walmart — and every other subscription provider in the market — would be smart to keep track of the metrics that top-performing subscription services use.

Findings from the PYMNTS Intelligence study “The State Of Subscription Business: Best Practices And Business Performance Drivers,” show that most subscription-focused organizations are ignoring crucial data when gauging subscription satisfaction.