Vizio: Difference between revisions

'''Vizio''' is a television manufacturer whose advertising & data collection business generates more gross profit than the hardware it sells. In Vizio's final quarter as an independent public company (Q3 2024), its Platform+ segment reported $115.8 million in gross profit while its Device segment lost $6.7 million.<ref name="vizio-q3-2024">{{Cite web |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241101202974/en/VIZIO-HOLDING-CORP.-Reports-Q3-2024-Financial-Results |title=VIZIO HOLDING CORP. Reports Q3 2024 Financial Results |date=2024-11-01 |website=BusinessWire}}</ref> The company has been a subsidiary of [[Walmart]] since December 2024, when Walmart completed its acquisition for $11.50 per share.<ref name="walmart-acquisition">{{Cite web |url=https://corporate.walmart.com/news/2024/12/03/walmart-completes-acquisition-of-vizio |title=Walmart Completes Acquisition of VIZIO |date=2024-12-03 |website=Walmart Corporate}}</ref> Vizio has faced an [[Federal Trade Commission|FTC]] enforcement action for unauthorized data collection, an ongoing GPL lawsuit from the Software Freedom Conservancy, & a reliability downgrade from Consumer Reports.

Vizio was founded in 2002 & built its early market share by selling budget-priced LCD televisions through big-box retailers. The company went public in March 2021 (NYSE: VZIO) & positioned itself around its SmartCast operating system & advertising capabilities rather than hardware alone.<ref name="vizio-q3-2021">{{Cite web |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211109006429/en/VIZIO-HOLDING-CORP.-Reports-Q3-2021-Financial-Results |title=VIZIO HOLDING CORP. Reports Q3 2021 Financial Results |date=2021-11-09 |website=BusinessWire}}</ref>

In Q3 2021, Platform+ generated $57.3 million in gross profit, more than double the $25.6 million the Device segment earned in the same quarter.<ref name="vizio-q3-2021" /> Three years later, the gap had widened to the point where hardware was losing money outright. By Q4 2023, Platform+ gross profit reached $105.4 million (up 27% year over year); total company gross profit for that quarter was $98.1 million, meaning the Device segment was a net drag on profitability.<ref name="vizio-q4-2023">{{Cite web |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240226026773/en/VIZIO-Holding-Corp.-Reports-Q4-2023-Financial-Results |title=VIZIO Holding Corp. Reports Q4 2023 Financial Results |date=2024-02-26 |website=BusinessWire}}</ref> By Q3 2024, Platform+ gross profit reached $115.8 million while Device posted a loss of $6.7 million.<ref name="vizio-q3-2024" />

Walmart announced its acquisition of Vizio on February 20, 2024 & completed the deal on December 3, 2024 for $11.50 per share, valuing the company at approximately $2.3 billion in fully diluted equity.<ref name="walmart-acquisition" /> The acquisition expanded Walmart's $6.4 billion advertising business by adding Vizio's SmartCast platform & its 19.1 million active user accounts.<ref name="ars-walmart-vizio">{{Cite web |url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/newly-purchased-vizio-tvs-now-require-walmart-accounts-to-use-smart-features/ |title=Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features |author=Scharon Harding |date=2026-03-24 |website=Ars Technica}}</ref><ref name="vizio-q3-2024" /> Walmart's public statements about the deal focused on Vizio's advertising platform rather than its hardware. In Walmart's fiscal Q4 2026 earnings call (February 2026), CFO John David Rainey stated that Vizio had seen "triple-digit growth in advertising" during that quarter.<ref name="ars-walmart-vizio" />

The FTC found in 2017 that Vizio collected second-by-second viewing data from 11 million smart TVs without consumer knowledge or consent, then sold that data to third parties who appended it with demographic information including sex, age, income, marital status, household size, & education level.<ref name="ftc-2017">{{Cite web |url=https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2017/02/vizio-pay-22-million-ftc-state-new-jersey-settle-charges-it-collected-viewing-histories-11-million |title=VIZIO to Pay $2.2 Million to FTC, State of New Jersey to Settle Charges It Collected Viewing Histories on 11 Million Smart Televisions without Users' Consent |date=2017-02-06 |website=Federal Trade Commission}}</ref> While Vizio's contracts with third parties prohibited re-identification of consumers by name, those contracts permitted profiling by sex, age, income, marital status, household size, education, & home ownership status.<ref name="ftc-blog-2017">{{Cite web |url=https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2017/02/what-vizio-was-doing-behind-tv-screen |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220313091120/https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2017/02/what-vizio-was-doing-behind-tv-screen |archive-date=2022-03-13 |title=What Vizio was doing behind the TV screen |author=Lesley Fair |date=2017-02-06 |website=Federal Trade Commission}}</ref> A legal analysis by Davis Wright Tremaine noted that the FTC's enforcement action against Vizio set a precedent for how regulators treat automated viewing data collection across the smart TV industry.<ref name="dwt-2017">{{Cite web |author1=McMeley |first=Christin S. |author2=Glist |first2=Paul |author3=Seiver |first3=John D. |author4=Reynolds |first4=Alexander B. |date=Oct 2017 |title=The Real Takeaway From VIZIO's Privacy FTC Settlement |url=https://www.dwt.com/blogs/media-law-monitor/2017/10/the-real-takeaway-from-vizios-privacy-ftc-settleme |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201202003735/https://www.dwt.com/blogs/media-law-monitor/2017/10/the-real-takeaway-from-vizios-privacy-ftc-settleme |archive-date=2020-12-02 |website=Davis Wright Tremaine LLP}}</ref>