Walmart’s $1.4 billion Vibe.co deal is a direct shot at Amazon’s booming ad business

Walmart’s biggest acquisition in two years is a signal from CEO John Furner that he is serious about his ambitions to challenge Amazon.com’s massive lead in the advertising space.

The retailer said this week it will pay $1.4 billion to buy a French advertising-technology firm, Vibe.co. That company enables advertising through televisions connected to the internet and streaming content and, more crucially, focuses on enabling small and medium-size advertisers that might not have access to the large ad-buying agencies, and are thus an underserved market. 

“We want to be where our customers are spending their time,” Ryan Mayward, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart Connect US, told Bloomberg in an interview.

This latest deal, the first sizable one since Furner became CEO last winter after several years........

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