Walmart gets bullish on advertising business with Vibe.co acquisition

The retailer plans to strengthen its higher-margin advertising division through a deal to acquire the CTV tech platform.

Walmart agreed to acquire connected TV advertising platform Vibe.co in order to advance the mass retailer’s full-funnel advertising strategy through Walmart Connect.

The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, and the companies expect the transaction to close by the end of fiscal year 2027, per a Tuesday announcement. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, and Walmart declined to comment to Retail Dive on The Wall Street Journal’s reporting that the retailer is paying $1.4 billion for Vibe.co.

The Vibe.co agreement comes about two years after Walmart acquired TV maker Vizio for $2.3 billion.

Vibe.co CEO Arthur Querou and CTO Franck Tetzlaff — who are also co-founders — are expected to join Walmart Connect along with the broader Vibe.co team to support the business combination.

The move comes as advertising revenue becomes more important for retailers. Walmart’s first-quarter global advertising business grew 50% year over year, with Walmart Connect in the U.S. increasing 31%, per a May release.

Amazon's advertising services sales in Q1 grew 24% to over $17 billion, and Target’s first-quarter advertising revenue jumped about 50% to roughly $246 million.

Walmart is scaling higher-margin businesses such as advertising in order to strengthen its overall business mix, CEO John Furner said during an earnings call with analysts in May.

“For the quarter, our advertising business grew more than 30% for each segment, including 36% for Walmart U.S. Membership fee revenue grew 17% for the enterprise, led by Walmart U.S.,” Furner said. “Together, these profit streams represented approximately one-third of operating income.”