Wal-Mart to acquire VUDU

More than a month after All Things Digital reported that retail Wal-Mart was in talks to acquire video-on-demand service VUDU (a report which neither company ever confirmed), Wal-Mart announced late Monday that it will in fact buy VUDU in a deal set to close within a few weeks. The financial terms were not disclosed, but some reports put the figure at about $100 million.

The combination is likely to see VUDU's service increasingly incorporated into TVs and other devices sold at Wal-Mart. At the same time, VUDU has continued to be a partner to telcos and other service providers that have sought to offer video via VUDU as an alternative to creating their own expensive IPTV services. VUDU was aggressive early on securing title rights from many TV and movie studios, and as everyone is aware, that area has not exactly been the forte of telecom service providers.

Will Wal-Mart walk away from VUDU's service provider customers and carrier market vendor partners in favor of selling Internet-connected TVs that could bypass carrier TV services?

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