Vizio Joins Walmart to Expand Streaming Business

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M&A Deep Dive: Vizio

Introduction

Walmart’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Vizio isn’t just a play for TVs—it’s a high-stakes move in the escalating war for retail media dominance. By bringing Vizio’s SmartCast OS and its 19 million active accounts under the Walmart umbrella, the retail giant is placing a calculated bet: the future of shopping isn’t just in stores or apps—it’s on the living room screen.

While Vizio might seem like a hardware company, it’s not the TVs Walmart is after—it’s the platform. Vizio’s Platform+ segment, powered by its fast-growing advertising business, now generates the company’s entire gross profit. This is Walmart’s answer to Amazon’s booming ad empire, a clear attempt to turn eyeballs into advertising revenue by fusing commerce with connected TV.

But this isn’t just about ads. The deal instantly plugs Walmart Connect into one of the most powerful living room ecosystems in America. Vizio's smart TVs will act as new media real estate—front-and-center gateways for retail media innovation, programmatic ads, and first-party data activation. As streaming fragments attention and commerce becomes omnipresent, Walmart is building a new front in the battle for consumer engagement.

Strategically, this is more than an M&A headline—it’s a platform evolution. Vizio’s independence will be preserved (for now), with CEO William Wang continuing to lead under Walmart U.S. growth chief Seth Dallaire. But make no mistake: this is about long-term integration. With Walmart Connect, store data, and SmartCast stitched together, the world's largest retailer just gained a powerful operating system for the next generation of retail and media convergence.

History

Founded in 2002, at a time when flat-screen TVs were still a luxury and streaming was barely a concept, Vizio quietly redefined what affordable consumer tech could be. While competitors raced to push margins with high-end displays, Vizio bet on democratization—delivering quality, design, and value to the mass market.

The company's early success was built on one core belief: home entertainment should be accessible, not aspirational. By mastering vertical integration and striking exclusive deals with big-box retailers, Vizio brought premium features to price points that undercut incumbents by hundreds of dollars. It wasn’t just selling TVs—it was rewriting the economics of the living room.

But Vizio didn’t stop at screens. Recognizing that hardware alone wouldn’t future-proof the business, it made a pivotal shift—evolving from a device maker into a platform company. In 2016, it launched SmartCast, its proprietary smart TV operating system, and began capturing valuable user data, enabling targeted content and ads. That move proved prescient: in a landscape increasingly shaped by streaming and personalization, SmartCast gave Vizio a direct line to 19+ million active users.

This strategy came into sharp focus with the emergence of its Platform+ business. Built around advertising and data services, it quickly scaled to become Vizio’s most profitable segment—contributing 100% of gross profit by 2024. While competitors fought over screen specs, Vizio quietly built a media business atop its installed base.

Even as it expanded, Vizio remained capital-efficient, consumer-focused, and nimble. CEO and founder William Wang, a near-mythical figure in the consumer electronics space, kept a tight grip on product vision and strategic direction. The company weathered waves of disruption—from the decline of linear TV to the rise of connected devices—by staying relentlessly focused on value and user experience.

Now, with Walmart’s $2.3 billion acquisition, Vizio enters a new phase—not as a struggling hardware brand, but as a strategic enabler of retail media and omnichannel engagement. It’s no longer just about entertainment. Vizio is becoming a cornerstone of how commerce, content, and consumer behavior converge.

Vizio GTM plan

VIZIO’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a masterclass in convergence: of media and commerce, data and distribution, and content and connected hardware. While traditional consumer electronics brands focus on hardware margins or streaming aggregation, VIZIO has steadily redefined itself as a vertically-integrated advertising platform masquerading as a TV manufacturer.

Platform-First, Hardware-Backed

At the heart of VIZIO’s GTM engine is Platform+, the company’s high-margin, software-driven monetization layer. SmartCast—its proprietary operating system—not only powers the viewer experience but acts as a monetization platform for advertising, data, and content discovery. VIZIO sells TVs at low margins to seed living rooms, but the real business is in the recurring revenue from SmartCast’s 18.5 million active accounts and 20.5 billion streaming hours annually.

This reverse razor-and-blade model flips the script: the TV is the distribution channel, the platform is the product.

AdTech-Led Monetization

VIZIO’s GTM growth is anchored in its advertising engine. With over 30% year-over-year growth in ad revenue and a $32.48 average revenue per user (ARPU) on SmartCast, the business has matured into a demand-side magnet for brands looking to capture attention on the largest screen in the home.

Its direct-to-TV programmatic ad stack leverages Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) data and audience segmentation to deliver targeted ads that brands can’t ignore. In other words: VIZIO doesn’t just sell ad slots—it sells outcomes.

Multi-Segment Distribution Strategy

The company uses a blended GTM approach across three major vectors:

• Retail & OEM Channels: VIZIO still sells millions of TVs per year through partners like Walmart, Best Buy, and Amazon, ensuring broad household penetration.

• Platform Content Partnerships: VIZIO drives monetization through curated content experiences—Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) channels, native ad units, and home screen real estate sold to streaming platforms.

• Direct Brand Advertising: With a growing internal sales team, VIZIO is increasingly landing direct brand deals across CPG, auto, and entertainment—circumventing third-party ad networks.

Vertical GTM Motion: The Living Room OS

Unlike horizontal adtech platforms, VIZIO verticalizes its platform within one ecosystem: the living room. This singular focus allows it to dominate a niche with laser precision. Its home screen becomes a storefront. Its remote becomes a customer journey. Every pixel is a point of sale.

This has made VIZIO a GTM partner-of-choice not just for streaming services and brand advertisers, but increasingly for retail media networks like Walmart Connect—who can now leverage living room attention as an extension of digital shelf space.

Future-Forward Integration (Walmart Flywheel)

Walmart’s $2.3B acquisition of VIZIO isn’t just a deal—it’s a GTM supercharger. By integrating SmartCast with Walmart Connect’s ad stack, product catalog, and first-party shopper data, the combined entity will be able to serve shoppable ads, closed-loop attribution, and hyper-personalized content all within the TV experience.

It’s the next frontier of omnichannel retail—executed not in stores or apps, but on screens.

VIZIO’s GTM flywheel is deceptively simple: sell TVs to own the hardware footprint, monetize that footprint with software, and partner with every content, commerce, and advertising player trying to reach the consumer. In a fragmented media landscape, VIZIO’s clarity of focus has turned it into something rare—a consumer electronics company with a scalable, high-margin SaaS-like layer.

Walmart didn’t just buy a TV brand. It bought a turnkey go-to-market engine for retail media 2.0.

Why is Walmart buying Vizio

In an era where retail giants are racing to redefine what it means to own the consumer experience, Walmart’s $2.3 billion acquisition of VIZIO isn’t just a hardware play—it’s a strategic move to turn the largest screen in the home into the most powerful shoppable media channel in America.

By acquiring VIZIO, Walmart is not just buying TVs. It’s buying attention, data, and direct access to 19+ million active accounts across the country. And more importantly, it’s buying a scaled, high-margin ad platform that’s already proving it can compete with the likes of Amazon in the $50 billion U.S. retail media market.

The Retail Media OS for the Living Room

SmartCast—VIZIO’s proprietary TV operating system—has quietly become the operating system for the American living room. It powers curated streaming content, captures viewer-level data through Automatic Content Recognition (ACR), and sells that attention through Platform+, a software-driven ad business that now generates the entirety of VIZIO’s gross profit.

Walmart didn’t just acquire that software—it acquired the screen it lives on, the pipe into millions of households, and the ad stack that turns passive viewing into active retail engagement.

Walmart Connect: From Search to Screen

Walmart Connect, the company’s fast-growing retail media arm, has traditionally lived in search results and sponsored product placements across Walmart.com and its app. But to fully compete with Amazon, which now dominates connected TV advertising through Fire TV and Prime Video ads, Walmart needed to own the living room.

VIZIO gives Walmart:

• A first-party data firehose: Real-time insights into what customers are watching.

• A new ad surface: Premium TV real estate, from FAST channels to home screen takeovers.

• A commerce engine: The potential for shoppable ads powered by Walmart’s product catalog and inventory.

This is omnichannel retail—elevated, personalized, and embedded directly in entertainment.

Closing the Loop

VIZIO’s advertising pitch was always unique: they could offer deterministic measurement by tying ad exposure to in-store and online purchases. Walmart supercharges that promise. With control over both the media exposure (VIZIO) and the transaction data (Walmart), the company can now offer closed-loop attribution that few can match.

For advertisers, that means real ROI. For Walmart, that means ad budgets flowing directly from CPGs, auto, finance, and entertainment brands seeking performance, not just impressions.

Not Just TVs—A Talent and Tech Stack Acquisition

Walmart also gains a seasoned leadership team, including founder and CEO William Wang, and a product and engineering org with deep expertise in connected TV, ad tech, and OS development. VIZIO’s team will continue to operate independently, but now with the resources and distribution muscle of the world’s largest retailer.

Add to that a pre-existing national retail footprint (VIZIO already sells through Walmart) and the flywheel gets faster: TVs get cheaper, SmartCast scales further, and ad revenues go up.

With this acquisition, Walmart secures a front-row seat in the streaming wars—but on its own terms. It’s not launching a content studio. It’s not chasing subscribers. It’s owning the infrastructure layer that sits between content and commerce, and monetizing it through data, ads, and transactions.

Walmart didn’t just buy a smart TV company. It bought the next-generation gateway to American households—a screen that’s not only watched, but shopped.

This is Walmart’s play for retail media dominance, engineered not in stores, but through pixels.

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Challenges and Risks

Walmart’s acquisition of Vizio marks a bold strategic move to compete with Amazon in the fast-evolving world of connected TV advertising. But like all transformative bets, this deal carries execution risk. From aligning business models and safeguarding consumer trust to navigating platform integration and regulatory scrutiny, Walmart faces several headwinds that could undermine its long-term objectives if not addressed with discipline. Here’s what lies ahead.

Platform Integration Complexity
Walmart isn’t just buying a TV company—it’s inheriting a software ecosystem with its own monetization engine. Vizio’s SmartCast OS and Platform+ business model generate gross profit entirely through advertising, a model fundamentally different from Walmart’s core retail DNA.

Key risks include:

• Tech Stack Alignment: Integrating SmartCast’s OS and ad tech infrastructure with Walmart Connect’s commerce and data systems will require significant engineering coordination and backend development.

• Data Interoperability: Ensuring seamless alignment between Vizio’s first-party viewing data and Walmart’s retail shopper data will be critical—but technically and legally complex.

• Customer Friction: Any post-acquisition disruption to SmartCast’s user experience, ad load times, or personalization algorithms could erode its growing base of 19 million active accounts.

Without a unified product vision and strong technical governance, Walmart risks underutilizing Vizio’s platform potential—or worse, diluting it.

Retail vs. Media Culture Clash
Walmart’s operational culture is rooted in price, scale, and supply chain efficiency. Vizio’s ad-driven monetization model, meanwhile, requires rapid iteration, media ecosystem fluency, and platform innovation. Aligning these two worlds will take more than a reporting line.

Challenges to watch:

• Pace Mismatch: Vizio’s startup-style media and ad tech teams may find Walmart’s structure too rigid or bureaucratic, slowing down innovation cycles.

• Strategic Misalignment: If Walmart over-prioritizes short-term ad revenue rather than long-term platform engagement, it could alienate viewers and brands alike.

• Retention Risk: Key product, data, and advertising talent may exit during integration, especially if their creative or commercial autonomy is curtailed.

Walmart will need to walk a fine line—providing structure without stifling the very growth engine it just acquired.

Regulatory and Brand Risk
With Vizio’s ad business becoming a central profit driver, Walmart is now operating squarely in the media business—subject to an entirely new set of regulatory and reputational risks.

Key concerns:

• Consumer Data Scrutiny: Vizio has already faced lawsuits over its data collection practices. Now under Walmart, any perceived overreach in data tracking or targeted advertising could spark backlash or enforcement action.

• FTC/DOJ Oversight: Though the deal has closed, Walmart’s growing influence across retail and media may invite renewed antitrust scrutiny—especially as regulators take a broader view of vertical integration.

• Content Responsibility: With SmartCast comes exposure to the content that flows through it. Walmart must now manage brand safety risks tied to third-party apps and streaming platforms hosted on Vizio devices.

If Walmart mishandles data ethics or media accountability, it could erode trust—one of its most critical assets in the consumer value chain.

Overreliance on Advertising Growth
Platform+ accounts for all of Vizio’s gross profit—an impressive feat, but a concentrated risk. Walmart is betting that CTV ad spending will keep climbing and that its retail data will create defensible differentiation. But several variables could complicate that thesis.

Risks include:

• Macroeconomic Pressure: If brand ad budgets shrink, Vizio’s revenue growth could stall, pulling down Walmart’s broader growth narrative.

• Competitive Escalation: Amazon, Roku, and Google are all doubling down on CTV and programmatic ads. Vizio’s ad tech may struggle to keep pace without significant Walmart investment.

• Measurement Headwinds: As the media industry debates metrics and identity resolution post-cookie, Walmart must prove that its combined retail-media model drives superior ROI at scale.

If Platform+ growth underdelivers, Walmart could face investor skepticism over the deal’s long-term profitability—especially if integration costs or churn creep upward.

Walmart’s acquisition of Vizio is a calculated leap into the future of omnichannel retail media. But turning TVs into commerce engines won’t be plug-and-play. Success hinges on Walmart’s ability to fuse media with retail, align cultures, protect user trust, and prove the ROI of a screen-to-shelf ecosystem. Done right, this deal could redefine how brands engage with consumers at home. Done poorly, it could become a cautionary tale about the limits of platform convergence..

Market Opportunity

Walmart’s $2.3B acquisition of Vizio is not a traditional M&A play—it’s a vertical media play. It gives Walmart direct access to 18 million+ SmartCast households, deep first-party viewership data, and a full-stack CTV adtech platform capable of activating Walmart’s retail data at scale.

CTV Is the Future of Advertising

U.S. Connected TV (CTV) ad spend is projected to grow from $25 billion in 2023 to over $40 billion by 2027. But the ecosystem remains fragmented—split across hardware OEMs (Roku, Samsung), streaming apps, and retail media networks.

Walmart’s end-to-end control—from screen to shelf—offers a differentiated opportunity:

• Retail + Media Convergence: Walmart Connect’s shopper intent data layered over SmartCast’s viewership insights allows for true closed-loop attribution.

• Ad Monetization at Scale: Vizio’s Platform+ ad business grew 27% YoY in 2023, generating 100% of the company’s gross profit. Plugged into Walmart’s advertiser relationships, that monetization engine could scale significantly.

• Commerce Media Flywheel: View an ad on SmartCast. Scan a QR code. Complete a purchase on Walmart.com or via Walmart+—all in a closed-loop ecosystem.

This positions Walmart not just as a retailer with ads, but as a full-fledged media platform with purchase intent built in.

A Retail Media Network Unlike Any Other

Retail media is already a $51 billion business in the U.S., and it’s expected to eclipse TV ad spend by 2028. But while most retail media platforms live inside digital storefronts, Walmart can now extend its ad surface area into the home:

• Built-In Audience: 70% of Vizio SmartCast viewers are ad-supported. Walmart now owns the screen—and the data.

• First-Party Power: Unlike third-party DSPs, Walmart can offer deterministic targeting based on purchase history and household behavior.

• Cross-Channel Precision: Advertisers can target the same household across Walmart.com, in-store displays, and SmartCast TV ads—with unified measurement.

This unified platform is what advertisers have been demanding: performance media with brand-level reach and retail-level attribution.

An Ecosystem-Driven, Multi-Billion Dollar Play

This deal also unlocks platform-level synergies:

• Media Margin Expansion: With COGS close to zero, CTV ads are high-margin revenue—a strategic hedge against retail’s margin compression.

• Walmart+ Amplification: Bundling ad-free streaming perks or exclusive content into Walmart+ could drive subscription stickiness.

• Commerce Innovation: Interactive shoppable TV formats, real-time ad personalization, and voice-to-purchase integrations are now on the table.

With SmartCast’s reach and Walmart’s retail muscle, the TAM is massive. Beyond just the $40B CTV market, Walmart is building an ecosystem that touches:

• Retail media (TAM: $100B+ by 2030)

• Shoppable content and live commerce

• In-home consumer data intelligence

What’s Next

The future of media is measurable. The future of commerce is omnipresent. And the companies that merge the two will win the next decade.

With Vizio, Walmart has the bones of a commerce media empire: a national retail footprint, dominant shopper data, and now, a screen-based engagement engine.

Walmart isn’t just keeping up with Amazon. It’s creating a new category—retail media as a service—and Vizio is the catalyst.

How Vizio will operate within Walmart

Vizio will continue to operate as an independent business unit under the Walmart umbrella, preserving the agility and innovation that made it a force in smart TV operating systems and connected TV (CTV) advertising. But now, it will do so with the backing, scale, and data firepower of the world’s largest retailer.

Platform-Neutral Presence:
Just as Vizio built SmartCast to be open—not tethered to any one content provider—its ad platform will remain ecosystem-agnostic. That means continued partnerships with Disney+, Netflix, YouTube, and others, all while layering in Walmart’s own retail media capabilities. Vizio’s neutrality remains its strength—and Walmart intends to keep it that way.

Advertising Autonomy with Retail Muscle:
Platform+—Vizio’s fast-growing, high-margin ad business—will retain its current roadmap, leadership, and partner relationships. But with access to Walmart Connect’s retail data and ad buyers, it will expand faster and monetize deeper. Think of it less as a handover, more as a high-octane infusion.

Activating the Flywheel
Vizio’s integration into Walmart is about acceleration, not assimilation. Together, they create a closed-loop commerce media engine:

Retail-Powered Targeting:
Vizio’s first-party viewership data will now pair with Walmart’s deep transaction and SKU-level purchase data—unlocking deterministic targeting and full-funnel measurement that no other CTV player can match.

Shoppable TV, Realized:
Walmart will bring commerce innovation directly into the living room: interactive ads, QR-based instant checkout, and potential Walmart+ integrations like ad-free tiers or exclusive content. These are no longer concepts—they’re pipeline.

Measurement at Retail Grade:
While traditional TV ads rely on inferred impact, Walmart+Vizio offers end-to-end attribution. Marketers will be able to track a SmartCast ad impression to a digital or in-store purchase—with confidence and speed.

Vizio’s SmartCast OS will remain available to all content providers and advertisers. But behind the scenes, the Walmart Connect and Platform+ teams will increasingly align:

• Unified Ad Stack: Integration between Vizio’s CTV demand stack and Walmart Connect’s retail media network could streamline ad buys across in-store screens, eCommerce, and TV.

• Cross-Functional GTM: Walmart’s salesforce will now offer bundled CTV + retail media campaigns, creating net-new revenue streams.

• Privacy-First Governance: With rising scrutiny on data usage, Vizio’s platform will adopt Walmart’s privacy standards—ensuring consent-based, household-level targeting that’s built to scale compliantly.

Commerce + Media = Walmart’s Strategic Bet

This isn’t just a TV strategy—it’s Walmart’s long-term play to own the intersection of attention and intent. With Vizio, it doesn’t just react to Amazon’s advertising push—it leapfrogs it by embedding commerce into the core of consumer media.

Expect Vizio to keep innovating. But with Walmart’s scale, data, and demand-side strength behind it, those innovations will now land faster, reach farther, and matter more.

Financials

VIZIO’s Q3 2024 performance underscores the resilience of its dual-engine business model, even as the company transitions further into high-margin Platform+ revenue. With disciplined cost control, modest topline growth, and a continued pivot to advertising-led monetization, VIZIO is optimizing for margin expansion and long-term profitability—positioning itself as a strategic asset in Walmart’s connected TV ambitions.

Total Revenue

VIZIO continues to post steady top-line results, supported by growth in Platform+ even as device volumes normalize:

• Q3 2024 Total Net Revenue: $426.2 million (+3% YoY)

• Platform+ Revenue: $176.5 million (+22% YoY)

• Device Revenue: $249.7 million (–7% YoY)

The ongoing shift in revenue mix is key: Platform+ now represents 41% of total revenue, up from 35% in Q3 2023. This shift toward ad-tech and services aligns with broader CTV trends and supports more recurring, margin-rich revenue streams.

Monetization Efficiency

VIZIO’s ad-based platform continues to scale efficiently:

• SmartCast Active Accounts: 18.8 million (+9% YoY)

• SmartCast Hours: 5.3 billion (+14% YoY)

• ARPU (TTM): $31.84 (+16% YoY)

Higher engagement and improved ARPU highlight VIZIO’s success in monetizing its installed base through WatchFree+, cross-platform ad inventory, and retail media integrations—making it a natural fit for Walmart’s omnichannel data flywheel.

Profitability & Operating Leverage

Despite a mixed device business, Platform+ operating leverage is driving improved margins:

• Gross Profit: $105.2 million (+17% YoY)

• Gross Margin: 24.7% (vs. 21.9% in Q3 2023)

• Platform+ Gross Margin: 66% (vs. 64% in Q3 2023)

By scaling ad sales and partner content while streamlining device COGS, VIZIO is delivering structural margin improvement. Platform+ now contributes 67% of total gross profit—solidifying its role as the company's growth engine.

Net Income & Cash Flow

While GAAP profitability remains modest, cash generation remains robust:

• Net Income: $3.2 million (vs. $2.0 million YoY)

• Adjusted EBITDA: $23.9 million (+46% YoY)

• Cash & Equivalents: $316 million (no debt)

VIZIO operates with financial discipline, maintaining a strong balance sheet and capital-light model—providing Walmart with a clean integration runway and optionality for future investment.

Strategic Alignment

Platform+ is expanding its roster of direct advertisers and data partnerships, offering forward visibility into multi-quarter ad bookings. With over 500 advertisers onboarded in Q3 alone, VIZIO is demonstrating momentum in a sector increasingly driven by retail media and first-party data—making it a synergistic asset within Walmart’s growing CTV and advertising stack.

Closing thoughts

Walmart’s acquisition of VIZIO is more than a media play—it’s a deliberate, infrastructure-first move to reshape the future of retail media, streaming, and connected commerce. At $2.3 billion, the deal reflects both VIZIO’s disciplined execution over the past decade and Walmart’s commitment to owning the consumer interface—not just in stores and online, but on the living room screen.

For VIZIO, this marks the next chapter in a quietly ambitious journey. From pioneering affordable smart TVs to building a profitable ad business via Platform+, the company has steadily moved up the value chain. It now enters a scale-up phase with access to Walmart’s vast retail, data, and advertising ecosystem—accelerating its evolution from device maker to data-rich media platform.

For Walmart, VIZIO isn’t just a hardware bet—it’s a direct on-ramp into 18.8 million households, 5.3 billion monthly streaming hours, and a growing base of ad partners eager for retail-aligned audiences. This isn’t about competing with Roku or Amazon on features. It’s about redefining commerce through content—embedding Walmart’s shopper data and supplier network into the very operating system of CTV.

And for the broader ecosystem, the message is clear: control the screen, control the signal. As retail media becomes the new advertising frontier, platforms like VIZIO become strategic gateways—not just for impressions, but for measurable, closed-loop outcomes.

This deal is not just about buying share—it’s about building leverage. Walmart is assembling a tech and media stack purpose-built for omnichannel commerce. With VIZIO, it now owns a critical touchpoint in that journey—one that’s scalable, monetizable, and increasingly indispensable.

Here is my interview with Tom Kelly, a global tech leader and angel investor, who works as the Global Director of Technical Account Management at Braze.  With deep expertise in customer success, AI adoption, and GTM strategy, Tom builds high-performing teams and invests in the next wave of startups shaping the future of tech.

In this conversation, Tom and I discuss:

• What’s the playbook for building a scalable services org that doesn’t just react to customer needs but drives proactive value?

• Is distribution a moat?

• Will AI Kill the CS Degree?

• What’s the biggest mistake companies make when trying to adopt AI into customer-facing or services orgs?

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