Walmart is in talks to buy smart-television manufacturer Vizio for greater than $2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, a move that would bolster its promoting business and provides it control of greater than a fifth of the US television market.
Vizio shares closed up 24.6% on Tuesday. They briefly surged 36% to their highest since November 2022. Walmart’s shares fell about 1%. The reported offer price is almost 30% higher than Vizio’s $1.54 billion market cap at close on Monday.
The talks come at a time Walmart is increasingly monetizing its reach and troves of purchaser data to sell ads on its properties including its website and store assets corresponding to digital diplays, connected TVs and radio.
Adding Vizio TVs could give firms including J.M. Smucker and Kraft Heinz more screens to display their ads to the greater than 130 million shoppers that visit Walmart’s 5,000 US stores each week.
Since launching in 2021, Walmart’s US ad business, called Connect, has been growing at a double-digit clip, generating sales of about $3 billion last yr, according to a report from Insider Intelligence.
![Walmart store](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/2019-file-photo-shows-entrance-19932169.jpg?w=1024)
Walmart’s finance chief singled out Walmart Connect as considered one of its fast-growing, high-margin businesses that might change the composition of Walmart’s profit and loss statement over the following five years. More of its future profitability is probably going to come from selling ads on Walmart properties than by selling on a regular basis essentials like milk and bathroom paper that the corporate is understood for, he said.
Retailers’ ad businesses, commonly called retail media networks (RMN), have develop into a pretty option for advertisers as traditional ad sellers like Apple and Google crack down on the quantity of third-party data they share with advertisers.
In consequence, RMNs have develop into the fastest-growing a part of the US ad industry are slated to generate about $60 billion in sales this yr, according to Insider Intelligence estimates.
Owning Vizio would give Walmart access to an energetic user base of nearly 18 million people and help unlock Vizio’s own software platform business that has annual promoting revenues growing north of 27% at a greater than 60% margin rate, said Nicholas Zangler, an analyst at Stephens.
![A television screen with colorful design.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/AP9991920185415332.jpg)
Vizio commanded the No. 1 shelf-share position at Walmart and nearly 70% of its TVs are sold on the retailer, the analyst said. By acquiring Vizio, Walmart could potentially control 22% of the US TV market between its private-label Onn brand and Vizio, he added.
Walmart and Vizio declined to comment.
It was not immediately clear if Vizio products could be available outside of Walmart if a deal is inked.
The news is a negative for Roku, which also sells smart TVs and streaming devices, and has an exclusive deal with Walmart to sell products fulfilled by Walmart on Roku devices, Zangler said. Roku shares ended down about 9% on Tuesday.
Discussions between Walmart and Vizio are ongoing, and a deal may not occur, the WSJ report said, citing people acquainted with the situation.
The choice to sell Walmart will rest entirely on Vizio’s CEO, William Wang, who founded the corporate in 2002 and holds majority voting rights, Zangler said.