Walmart takes aim at Amazon with Vizio acquisition

Walmart has announced that it is planning to acquire the TV maker Vizio; this deal is valued at $2.3 billion. Just last week, it was rumored that Walmart would purchase Vizio, and now the deal is made official. Of course, pending regulatory approval.

Walmart says in a press release that “the acquisition of Vizio and its SmartCast Operating System (OS) would enable Walmart to connect with and serve its customers in new ways, including innovative television and in-home entertainment and media experiences.” It goes on to say that “It would also create new opportunities to help advertisers connect with customers, empowering brands with differentiated and compelling opportunities to engage at scale and to realize greater impact from their advertising spend with Walmart.”

The Vizio acquisition would bolster Walmart’s own brand of TVs

Over the past handful of years, Walmart has started to create its own line of electronics under the Onn brand in an attempt to compete with Amazon. Currently, Amazon has over 100 different brands that produce different products and undercut its competition.

The acquisition of Vizio would allow Walmart to really bolster its own line of TVs. While the Onn brand isn’t bad for a good cheap TV, Vizio is definitely the king of good cheap TVs. But the real question is whether this deal will actually go through.

Those who have followed the TV industry for quite some time might remember a time when LeEco was planning to buy Vizio for around $2 billion back in 2016. The acquisition would have made the combined company the largest global television powerhouse. This was shortly after LeEco held a massive event in San Francisco to bring their products to the US.

Shortly after this announcement, LeEco had to pull out of the deal, and the company continued to experience financial limitations. By September 2018, LeEco had sold its remaining ownership of Leshi Zhixin Electronics Technology Co., Ltd and Le Vision Pictures to Sunac. Vizio accused LeEco of breaching its settlement after the deal fell through. LeEco was supposed to pay $100 million as a breakup fee to Vizio, which it failed to pay completely.

So let’s hope that this acquisition goes better than the last one for Vizio.