Walmart Set to Buy Smart TV Maker Vizio in Massive Deal

Walmart is buying Vizio for $2.3 billion. The retail giant announced the move today in a press release and fans are shocked by this development. Walmart is looking to boost the ad business with the acquisition of Vizio. It seems that their SmartCast Operating System would help the retailer reach more customers in some strange fusion of their digital commerce platform with the programs offered on a TV platform. What is unknown at the moment is that Visio has 500+ direct advertiser partnerships. That 18 million active accounts using Vizio to access different services and goods. It is unknown at this time if the Onn brand of TVs will continue moving forward. 

"The acquisition of Vizio and its SmartCast Operating System (OS) would enable Walmart to connect with and serve its customers in new ways including innovative television and in-home entertainment and media experiences," Walmart wrote in the press release. "It would also create new opportunities to help advertisers connect with customers, empowering brands with differentiated and compelling opportunities to engage at scale and to realize greater impact from their advertising spend with Walmart."

VIZIO Now A Walmart Brand

Vizio fared pretty well in the market for a long time. Establishing itself as a name in the budget TV space, we'd be willing to bet that a lot of the people reading this article right now got their first flat screen from the brand. However, as technology moves forward, these kinds of ad-based services are pushing to become more prevalent. Walmart announced a partnership with Innovid last year to run personalized ads on their TVs. There was also an agreement with Roku for "shoppable ads" that let people buy products right from their TV screens. Now, Vizio is probably going be a player in that.

"We believe this is the ideal next chapter in Vizio's history. By bringing our capabilities and resources together, we'll drive innovation and create even more value for our customers," argued Vizio CEO William Wang in the release. "Walmart's approach is aligned with Vizio's mission and vision, and our technology will help bring a scaled, connected TV advertising platform to Walmart Connect."

Walmart Continues Its Upward Trajectory

All of this news follows a good quarter for Walmart. Recent earnings call saw the company touting and point $.83 per share increase. That would be the largest increase in a decade for Walmart. The retail giant has had dividend increases for 51 years straight. As these numbers go up, a lot of observers anticipate Walmart leaning even more heavily into its ad-based business. Some event estimate that the digital potential of that side of the company outstrips it's utility as a physical retail space.

"Dividends continue to be a part of our diversified capital returns approach. We're proud to be increasing our annual dividend for the 51st consecutive year. This year's 9 percent increase is the largest in over a decade, and a sign of our confidence in our growth potential and cash flow" said John David Rainey, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Walmart Inc.

Are you surprised by this Vizio news? Let us know down in the comments!