Walmart Acquires Ad Tech Company in Its Largest Deal in Two Years

Walmart officially announced on June 23, 2026, local time, that it is acquiring the connected TV (CTV) advertising platform 'Vibe.co'. Although Walmart did not disclose specific financial terms through its official press release, major foreign media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), reported the transaction size at approximately $1.4 billion, evaluating it as the largest merger and acquisition deal Walmart has signed in the past two years.

Vibe.co, which has over 10,000 advertisers, is a self-serve connected TV advertising platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), mid-market brands, and e-commerce brands. This acquisition is a core part of the strategy to build a more accessible full-funnel advertising solution through Walmart's commerce media business, 'Walmart Connect'. Previously, despite its excellent reach and impact, connected TV advertising was difficult to enter due to cost and complexity, but Walmart plans to support small advertisers and marketplace sellers without dedicated media teams so they can easily plan and activate campaigns.

In particular, Vibe.co's technology is expected to create powerful synergy by combining with Walmart's vast commerce audience data, closed-loop measurement technology, and the media ecosystem centered around its recently acquired VIZIO. Advertisers will be able to secure transparency while more clearly measuring media investments and actual commerce performance.

The management teams also clarified the goal of this combination. Ryan Mayward, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Walmart Connect in the U.S., emphasized, "Our focus is on making it easier for advertisers of all sizes to access, activate, and measure performance in commerce media," stating that they will connect businesses and customers across the streaming environment. Arthur Querou, Co-founder and CEO of Vibe.co, explained, "Vibe.co is a platform built so that performance and e-commerce marketers can utilize streaming TV for measurable, fast execution and result optimization, just as they would operate paid social media," adding that through this joining, they are bringing performance TV advertising to the most powerful commerce media ecosystem in the market.

Along with this, Walmart also placed emphasis on maintaining the openness of the ecosystem. This transaction is the result of continuous investments to help easily manage commerce media based on existing partnerships with Magnite, Yahoo DSP, Google DV360, and others. Walmart Connect and Vibe.co pledged to maintain an open advertising ecosystem, continuing to collaborate with various partners across the industry, including broadcasters, publishers, supply-side platforms (SSPs), and measurement providers.

Once the acquisition is finalized, Vibe.co's core team, including CEO Arthur Querou and CTO Franck Tetzlaff, will officially join Walmart Connect to support a seamless business integration. The transaction is expected to close by the end of fiscal year 2027, following customary regulatory approval procedures, including the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. Walmart stated that this acquisition will not affect its previously announced revenue and operating income growth guidance for fiscal year 2027.

Industry attention is focused on how Walmart, which attracts approximately 280 million weekly customer visits and records massive revenue of $713 billion as of fiscal year 2026, will reshape the connected TV advertising market landscape against competitors like Amazon.