After announcing plans to purchase the company in February, Walmart has officially closed on its deal with Vizio, buying out the TV maker for over $2 billion, and it’s all about ads.
Walmart confirmed in February that it planned to buy Vizio for $2.3 billion. The purchase focused in heavily on Vizio’s SmartCast operating system and the “new ways” it would present Walmart to “create new opportunities to help advertisers connect with customers” as well as delivering additional “in-home entertainment and media experiences.”
That deal has now closed, meaning that Walmart now officially owns Vizio outright.
In a press release announcing the deal closure, Walmart makes its plans quite clear, explaining:
The acquisition of VIZIO and its SmartCast Operating System allows Walmart to serve its customers in new ways to enhance their shopping journeys. 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.
In other words, Walmart plans to use the acquisition of Vizio to ramp up its advertising opportunities going forward through the SmartCast platform. Walmart plans to pair SmartCast with Walmart Connect, its retail media business, which it says will “be impactful and allow us to invest in our business even further on behalf of our customers.”
Changes to existing Vizio TVs remain unclear for the time being.
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- Google TV gets major Roku Channel update with new features, more free channels
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