Walmart Eyes $2 Bln Deal To Buy Vizio: WSJ

(RTTNews) - Retail giant Walmart (WMT) might make a move to acquire smart TV manufacturer, Vizio Holding Corp. (VZIO), for $2 billion, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

If the deal goes through, Walmart's advertising revenue stream would generate more amounts as the TV brand makes more money from advertisements and viewer data, as well as other partnerships, than hardware.

Walmart could leverage the revenue through its retail media networks or RMN called Connect, where the income is generated from selling ads on the TVs inside the stores as well as at check-out aisles, the report noted.

Also, the retail chain would be in a better position to compete with the economical smart TVs from Roku and Amazon than its existing Onn brand.

If the deal concludes, Vizio, founded in 2002, would join the other tech companies including content delivery platform Vudu, AR optical tech company Memomi, banking app ONE and other retailers under the Walmart brand.

In 2016, Vizio was about to be purchased by LeEco, dubbed "Netflix of China", for $2 billion. However, the deal failed to reach a conclusion when the media company ran into financial troubles, prompting Vizio to sue LeEco for $100 million, which was later settled for $60 million.