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Walmart buying TV-brand Vizio for its ad-fueling customer data

Deal expected to close as soon as this summer.

Walmart, including Sam's Club, is typically Vizio's biggest customer by sales, per a WSJ report last week on the potential merger. Walmart said today that Vizio's Platform+ ad business has "over 500 direct advertiser relationships, including many of the Fortune 500" and that SmartCast users have grown 400 percent since 2018 to 18 million active accounts. While some people may be willing to sacrifice features and image quality to save money, others aren't willing to deal with more ads and incessant interest in viewer tracking for that experience.

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