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Walmart Buys Vizio to Use Its TVs as a New Way to Blast You With Ads | Walmart paid $2.3 billion for Vizio with its SmartCast OS along with the 19 million accounts it can advertise to.

Walmart paid $2.3 billion for Vizio with its SmartCast OS along with the 19 million accounts it can advertise to.

At first, you may assume Walmart wants to use the brand as its main TV for in-store and online shoppers, but according to the retail giant, it’s all to put its own ads on Vizio-brand smart TVs. You may remember the Federal Trade Commission settled with Vizio for around $2.2 million after a ProPublica report showed the company collected and sold user data to advertisers without permission. Walmart seems to think it needs to compete in the smart TV segment, especially if it doesn’t have to get bogged down in the haze of costly streaming services.

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