Hajra Naz
Walmart made a major move on Tuesday. The company officially completed its acquisition of Vibe.co. Vibe.co is a self-service platform built for streaming TV advertising. This deal folds Vibe.co directly into Walmart Connect. Walmart Connect is the retailer’s connected TV advertising arm.
Walmart announced the deal back in June, though the price wasn’t public at the time. That came later, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, which put the number at $1.4 billion.
So what does Vibe.co actually do? It fills a pretty specific gap. Smaller brands — the kind without big ad budgets or dedicated media teams — use its platform to run streaming TV campaigns across multiple publishers at once, rather than negotiating separately with each publisher. For a small or mid-sized business, that’s a real advantage. Cutting individual deals with streaming platforms takes time and leverage most of them don’t have.
Folding Vibe.co into Walmart Connect changes the equation. It pushes Walmart further into connected TV advertising and opens up new paths to shoppers. And it feeds into something bigger: advertising has quietly become one of Walmart’s more important revenue streams in recent years, and this deal only deepens that bet.
Ryan Mayward commented on the deal in a company press release. He serves as GM and senior vice president of Walmart Connect. He praised Vibe.co’s platform directly. He said it makes streaming TV advertising simple. He also said it makes that advertising accessible to businesses of every size.
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Mayward outlined what comes next. He said the two companies plan to build on that existing foundation. The goal is to help advertisers connect with customers more easily. That includes connections across streaming, shopping, and the wider commerce journey. He also emphasized measurability. Walmart wants advertising on its platform to become more effective and easier to track. Making it more accessible to smaller advertisers is part of that plan too.
This isn’t Walmart’s first big swing in the advertising space. The company made its last major acquisition in 2024. That year, it purchased Vizio, the well-known TV manufacturer. Walmart paid $2.3 billion for that deal. The goal then was similar to now. Walmart wanted to strengthen its advertising business, this time by gaining direct access to Vizio’s smart TV data and ad inventory.
Together, these two acquisitions show a clear pattern. Walmart isn’t just focused on retail anymore. The company is steadily building out an advertising empire that stretches across hardware, streaming, and now self-service ad tools for smaller brands. As more shopping and entertainment move onto connected devices, Walmart appears determined to capture ad dollars at every step of that journey.
With Vibe.co now part of Walmart Connect, the retailer is positioning itself to compete more directly with other major players in retail media and connected TV advertising. Whether this move pays off in the way Vizio did remains to be seen, but the strategy behind it is becoming increasingly clear.
