Walmart to acquire Vibe.co for $1.4 billion in CTV ad push

Walmart agreed to acquire Vibe.co for $1.4 billion, the retailer's second connected-TV advertising deal in two years, as it seeks to help small and mid-sized brands reach streaming audiences.

"We want to be where our customers are spending their time. They are spending more and more time in a connected TV environment," Ryan Mayward, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart Connect U.S., said in an interview.

The deal, expected to close by the end of Walmart's fiscal year, adds a self-serve advertising platform built for small- and medium-sized businesses — a cohort that includes many of the retailer's third-party marketplace sellers. Terms were not officially disclosed, though a person familiar with the matter confirmed the $1.4 billion price tag. The acquisition follows Walmart's $2.3 billion purchase of smart TV-maker Vizio in 2024, which the retailer has since converted into a private-label brand sold exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club stores.

Advertising is one of Walmart's fastest-growing businesses, fueling profit growth as its core retail margins face pressure from inflation and competition. The Vibe.co acquisition gives Walmart a more accessible entry point for smaller advertisers who may lack the budgets or expertise for traditional TV campaigns, potentially expanding the pool of brands spending on Walmart Connect.

The deal underscores Walmart's strategy of building a closed-loop advertising ecosystem where brands can target shoppers on streaming platforms and measure results against actual purchases in Walmart stores or on Walmart.com. Vibe.co's technology simplifies campaign creation, optimization and performance measurement — capabilities Walmart plans to scale across its advertiser base.

A second bet on streaming TV

Connected TV viewership has surged as consumers shift from traditional cable to streaming services, creating new advertising inventory that retailers are racing to capture. Walmart's two acquisitions — Vizio for hardware and Vibe.co for software — position it to compete with Amazon's advertising business, which has long offered brands access to its Prime Video platform and Fire TV devices.

The previous Vizio acquisition gave Walmart access to viewership data and a direct relationship with TV buyers. Adding Vibe.co's self-serve platform targets the long tail of smaller advertisers that Amazon has successfully courted through its demand-side platform. Walmart Connect generated more than $4 billion in annual revenue in its most recent fiscal year, though the company has not disclosed a specific breakdown for CTV advertising.

Regulatory and competitive landscape

The deal does not require antitrust approval at the same threshold as the Vizio acquisition, given the smaller deal size. Walmart's advertising push comes as regulators globally scrutinize the market power of retail media networks, though no formal challenges have emerged against the company's ad-tech strategy.

For Vibe.co, the acquisition provides access to Walmart's scale — more than 4,500 U.S. stores, a growing e-commerce business and millions of daily shoppers. The platform's existing small-business customers gain the ability to tie ad spend directly to Walmart sales data, a feature that larger rivals have offered for years.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.