Shares of Magnite surged 6% to $18.36 after Walmart Connect, the retail giant's advertising division, named the company as a key supply-side partner for its expanding offsite media platform. The move represents the first time Walmart is connecting with Magnite to allow advertisers to activate Walmart's customer data outside of its own ad-buying tools. For a stock that has drifted between $17 and $18 for weeks, the question is whether this deal delivers lasting revenue — or just a sentiment sugar rush.
Walmart Ditched Exclusivity, and Magnite Filled the Gap. This partnership follows the end of Walmart's four-year exclusivity deal with The Trade Desk last fall , a breakup that opened the door for rivals. The pivot eliminates a walled-garden approach and decouples Walmart's first-party data from its own ad-buying system. Magnite now serves as the plumbing through which Walmart's shopper data flows to multiple competing ad-buying platforms — starting with Vizio, the smart TV maker Walmart acquired in late 2024. That positions Magnite at the center of a high-value data pipe, not as a one-off vendor.
The CTV Math Is Already Working. Magnite doesn't need this deal to prove its streaming business is growing — CTV crossed 51% of its core revenue metric for the first time in Q1 2026, with 30% year-over-year growth.
Total revenue hit $164.4 million , and net income flipped to $4.4 million from a $9.6 million loss a year earlier. The Walmart partnership adds incremental volume atop an already accelerating CTV business, and Q2 guidance calls for CTV contribution of $90–$92 million.
The Real Prize Is a $17 Billion Offsite Ad Market. U.S. offsite retail media ad spending — ads using retailer data but running outside the retailer's own website — is forecast to top $17 billion in 2026, up 29.5% year-over-year.
Offsite spending is growing at twice the rate of on-site. Magnite's technology is designed to sit between retailers and ad buyers, making each new retail media partnership a potential volume multiplier across its existing infrastructure.
Valuation Leaves Room — If Execution Follows. Benchmark analyst Daniel Kurnos values Magnite at just 7.5 times estimated 2026 enterprise value to EBITDA , while the consensus price target sits at $22.21 with 13 of 14 analysts rating it a buy. But investors have been skeptical before: four of Magnite's last five earnings reports drew flat-to-negative stock reactions despite strong fundamentals. Walmart gives Magnite a marquee brand name on its client roster. Whether that translates to material revenue depends on how quickly the integration — currently in a closed proof-of-concept phase — scales to live ad dollars.