JB Hi Fi has their Ffalcon TV brand, which is manufactured by TCL, now the biggest retailer in the world is looking at buying their own TV manufacturer with insiders admitting that Walmart is looking to buy Visio a brand that years ago was among the top two TV brands in the USA.
News of the $2 billion dollar deal saw Vizio shares jump 25% overnight on the news with Walmart looking to sell more than TV’s if the deal goes through.
Walmart Inc. is in talks to the buy TV maker Vizio Holding Corp. for more than $2 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
The Irvine, California based Company now has a market capitalization of around $1.9 billion. It was only a few years ago that the business was struggling.
The Wall Street Journal claims that the acquisition could benefit Walmart’s lucrative advertising division, which the company has been building up as it seeks to go beyond the core business of retailing.
The big advantage that Vizio has is that they have their own OZ which three years ago was generating over $180M in click revenue from streaming Companies as people who owned a Visio TV signed up to services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
The success of Vizio in this arena is believed to have prompted LG Electronics with their Web OS and Samsung with their Tizen OS to quickly follow Vizio’s lead.
Currently Walmart Connect, the Companies advertising division is adding more capabilities online and in stores to generate money from brands whose products they range in their stores.
Several brands in Australia claim that retailers often give them no choice with both Woolworths and Coles now including advertising in stores and on the Companies web sites a key part of negotiations when ranging discussions take place.If the deal comes to fruition under the reported terms, it would be the largest Walmart deal since it paid $16 billion for 77% of the Indian retailer Flipkart in 2018.
In July, Walmart said it had paid $1.4 billion to buy Tiger Global Management’s remaining stake in Flipkart.
Bloomberg News reported in September that Walmart was exploring the purchase of a majority stake in ChenMed, a closely held operator of primary-care clinics for seniors.
Walmart has moved away from some of the startup brands it acquired in the 2010s, selling plus-size apparel maker Eloquii and Bonobos menswear last year.
