Who Owns Vizio Inc.?

Vizio was founded in 2002 by William Wang, Laynie Newsome, and Ken Lowe in Irvine, California. Wang, a Taiwanese-born entrepreneur who had previously founded a computer monitor company, created Vizio to provide high-quality televisions at affordable prices. The company's strategy was to outsource manufacturing to contract manufacturers in Asia while focusing on design, marketing, and distribution in the United States.

Vizio's early success was built on selling large-screen televisions through big-box retailers like Costco, Sam's Club, and Walmart at prices significantly below those of Japanese and Korean competitors like Sony, Samsung, and LG. By keeping overhead low and leveraging retail partnerships, Vizio was able to offer competitive products at lower price points.

By the mid-2000s, Vizio had become one of the top-selling television brands in the United States. The company expanded its product line to include sound bars and other audio products. In 2007, Vizio claimed the top position in U.S. LCD TV shipments, surpassing Samsung in unit sales.

In 2016, Vizio introduced SmartCast, its smart TV operating system. SmartCast integrated streaming services directly into Vizio TVs and collected data on viewing habits, enabling Vizio to build an advertising business on top of its hardware sales. This marked a strategic shift from a pure hardware company to a hardware-plus-platform company.

In 2017, Vizio faced a significant privacy enforcement action from the FTC. The company agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle charges that it collected viewing data from millions of its smart TVs without consumers' knowledge or consent. The settlement required Vizio to obtain explicit consent before collecting viewing data and to delete data collected before March 1, 2016.

Vizio launched WatchFree+, a free ad-supported streaming service, as part of its SmartCast platform. WatchFree+ provided Vizio with additional advertising revenue and data on viewer preferences. The service offered hundreds of free channels supported by advertising.

Vizio filed for an IPO in 2017 but delayed the offering due to market conditions. The company eventually went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021 under ticker symbol VZIO, raising $268 million at a valuation of approximately $3.5 billion. The IPO was smaller than initially planned, reflecting changing market conditions and the company's shift toward platform revenue.

As a public company, Vizio reported its financial results quarterly. The company's Platform+ segment, which includes advertising and content distribution revenue, grew rapidly. In Q3 2024, advertising revenue represented 82 percent of total Platform+ net revenue, up from 28 percent in Q1 2020. SmartCast ARPU grew from $10.66 in Q1 2020 to $37.17 in Q3 2024.

In February 2024, Walmart announced an agreement to acquire Vizio for approximately $2.3 billion, or $11.50 per share in cash. The acquisition was completed on December 3, 2024, after the expiration of the waiting period under federal regulations. Vizio's Class A common stock was delisted from the NYSE. Vizio's business was reported as part of the Walmart U.S. segment going forward.

Walmart's primary motivation for the acquisition was Vizio's SmartCast advertising platform and its approximately 19 million active SmartCast accounts. The acquisition gave Walmart a connected TV advertising business to complement its existing retail media network, Walmart Connect. By combining Vizio's viewing data with Walmart's purchase data, advertisers can target consumers based on both what they watch and what they buy.

In 2025 and 2026, Vizio's advertising business grew rapidly under Walmart ownership. Walmart reported triple-digit growth in Vizio advertising revenue in Q4 FY2026. Walmart's global advertising business grew 46 percent to nearly $6.4 billion for fiscal year 2026, with Vizio contributing to this growth. Walmart used the 2025 NewFronts presentation to showcase its unified content-to-commerce strategy, combining Vizio's 92 million household reach with Walmart's 150 million weekly U.S. customers.