Walmart Gave Itself Until January To Close The Vibe.co Deal. It Took Six Weeks.

Walmart said Tuesday it has completed its acquisition of Vibe.co, the France-based self-service streaming TV advertising platform it agreed to buy in June. The company said the acquisition will help Walmart Connect, its U.S. commerce media business, bring new ways for advertisers to plan, buy and measure streaming TV advertising. Ryan Mayward, GM and Senior Vice President of Walmart Connect U.S., said in the announcement that the Vibe.co team is officially joining Walmart. Vibe.co, founded in 2021, is described in the release as serving more than 10,000 advertisers. Terms were not disclosed.

Walmart’s June 23 announcement said the transaction was subject to customary closing conditions, including the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, and that the parties expected to close by the end of fiscal year 2027. Walmart’s fiscal 2027 ends January 31, 2027. The deal closed August 4, six weeks to the day after it was announced and nearly six months inside the outer edge of the window Walmart set.

The Completion Release Leaves The Access Question Untouched

That speed did not come with detail. What the release does not contain is anything a supplier or seller could plan around. There is no date for when Vibe.co’s platform becomes available inside Walmart Connect, no description of how it will connect to Walmart DSP or to existing Connect buying paths, and no pricing detail. Walmart did not disclose terms in June and did not disclose them at close. The Wall Street Journal reported the deal at roughly $1.4 billion, including a $1.2 billion cash payout and about $180 million to Vibe.co’s top executives after closing. Walmart has confirmed none of it, and the figure belongs in planning conversations as reported rather than settled.

Walmart Already Built A CTV Path For Smaller Advertisers. Newcomers Start With A Partner.

The access question matters because Walmart Connect answered a version of it four months ago, differently. On April 27, Mayward published a post on walmartconnect.com introducing Connect Select, a curated marketplace inside Walmart DSP that packages connected TV inventory against campaign objectives, with launch supply from VIZIO, premium publishers including Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, and supply-side platforms including FreeWheel, Index Exchange, Magnite and PubMatic. Walmart positioned it so advertisers of all sizes could extend brand building into CTV. The same post cited Walmart first-party data showing Walmart Connect CTV campaigns delivered a median of 44% new-to-brand buyers in fiscal 2026, measured across offsite CTV campaigns run between February 2025 and January 2026.

The activation paths are where Connect Select and Vibe.co diverge. Walmart’s own getting-started guidance splits by experience: advertisers already running offsite media can discover and activate curated deals directly in Walmart DSP, while those just getting started are directed to contact their partner, with deals transacted through Inventory Controls and Deal Desk. Vibe.co’s published help documentation, which predates the close, describes a different model: no minimum campaign budget, no platform, subscription or seat fees, typical CTV CPMs between $15 and $30, and a first charge triggered once a campaign accumulates $100 in spend. Walmart has not said whether those terms survive integration, whether Vibe.co keeps operating as a standalone platform, or how an advertiser would move between the two.

Walmart has also not restated one commitment from June. The announcement said the acquisition was intended to “expand advertiser choice and accessibility, not limit how advertisers or partners engage” with Walmart Connect’s media ecosystem, alongside a pledge to keep working with broadcasters, publishers, supply-side platforms and measurement providers. That language does not appear in Tuesday’s shorter release. Nothing indicates the position has changed, and it stands as the operative public statement for advertisers currently buying Connect inventory through outside platforms.

The Gap Is Wider For Sellers Than For Suppliers

The two segments are not starting from the same place. A 1P supplier already running offsite campaigns with agency or in-house media support can activate Connect Select deals in Walmart DSP now, which makes self-service streaming mostly a question of where existing budget goes. For a 3P Marketplace seller who has never bought offsite media, the partner step is the entry barrier itself.

Sellers are spending more on Walmart advertising regardless. On the company’s first quarter fiscal 2027 earnings call, Walmart said marketplace sellers grew their advertising spend by more than 50% and saw a corresponding lift in sales. Walmart first-party data footnoted on Walmart Connect’s small business page shows Walmart Marketplace sellers who advertised in fiscal 2025 generated, on average, seven times the sales of sellers who did not, though that figure covers Walmart advertising generally rather than streaming and its measurement window closed in January 2025. Whether that appetite carries into streaming is untested.

The June announcement named this audience directly, saying the combination was expected to support broader CTV adoption among SMB and mid-market advertisers, including Walmart’s third-party marketplace sellers. Tuesday’s release mentions Marketplace sellers only in its general description of Walmart Connect, not in connection with Vibe.co. Closing releases run shorter by convention, and the June language remains the clearest public statement of who this is for.

Walmart Connect’s push toward self-service is not new, and the ambition behind it was stated plainly at the start. When Walmart announced it was creating a display self-serve platform in February 2021, then chief customer officer Janey Whiteside wrote that the company expected its largest suppliers to adopt the automation fastest but was building the platform to scale for Marketplace sellers and suppliers of all sizes. That platform exists now. The four solutions listed on Walmart Connect’s small business page as of August 4 are Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, Sponsored Videos and Onsite Display, with offsite media appearing under enterprise solutions. Vibe.co is the acquisition that could move streaming onto that list, and Walmart has not said when.

Winning With Walmart

Winning With Walmart is an independent platform for suppliers, sellers, solution providers, and industry experts.

Articles are developed by staff editors, contributing experts, and trusted partners.

Some are researched and drafted with the assistance of AI tools and are reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by Winning With Walmart editors before publication.

Editorial judgment, sourcing decisions, and final approval rest with the publication's human editors in every case.

We are committed to accuracy and fairness. If you believe this article contains an error, we welcome your feedback.