Vizio
Vizio Holding Corp. is an American publicly traded company that designs and sells televisions, sound bars, viewer data, and advertising. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in Irvine, California.[7] In February 2024, it entered into an agreement to be acquired by Walmart, so Walmart can expand advertising sales in video content that streams for free on Vizio devices.[8]
Not to be confused with Microsoft Visio.Formerly
V Inc. (2002–2004)
- NYSE: VZIO (Class A)
- Russell 2000 component
October 2002, in Costa Mesa, California, U.S.
North America
OLED TV, 4K UHD TVs, LCD TVs, LED TVs, soundbars, home theater in a box, QLED TV, Platform+
History[edit]
The company was founded in 2002 as V Inc. by entrepreneur William Wang and two founding employees.[9][10] By 2004, Wang changed the company name to Vizio.[11][12]
In 2006, the company's revenue was estimated at $700 million, and in 2007 it was estimated to have exceeded $2 billion.[13] Vizio is known for selling its HDTVs at lower prices than its competitors.[7]
On October 19, 2010, Vizio signed a 4-year contract to sponsor U.S. college football's annual Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California, beginning with the 2011 Rose Bowl and ending with the 2014 Vizio BCS National Championship Game.[14] When the Rose Bowl contract ended, Vizio signed a contract to sponsor the Fiesta Bowl making the official name the Vizio Fiesta Bowl.[15]
In late 2014, Vizio acquired Advanced Media Research Group, Inc., the parent of entertainment website BuddyTV.[16]
On July 24, 2015, Vizio filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $172.5 million in an initial public offering of Class A common stock;[17][18] however, the IPO was never completed.[19][20]
In August 2015, Vizio acquired Cognitive Media Networks, Inc, a provider of automatic content recognition (ACR).[21] Cognitive Media Networks was subsequently renamed Inscape Data.[21] Inscape functioned as an independent entity until the end of 2020, when it was combined with Vizio Ads and SmartCast; the three divisions combining to operate as a single unit.[22]
In November 2015, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Office of the New Jersey Attorney General brought charges against Vizio, alleging it collected non-personal information on its customers and sold it to advertisers.[23][24] In February 2017, Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the charges.[25][26][27][28] Additionally, the settlement required Vizio to delete the data it had captured and update its data collection practices. After the settlement, the company only collected data from TV units that opted in through disclosures.[29]
On July 26, 2016, Chinese electronics company LeEco announced that it would acquire Vizio for US$2 billion;[30] however, the acquisition was canceled in April 2017 after the Chinese government blocked the merger amid a larger government crackdown on major foreign acquisition by domestic Chinese firms.[31][32][33] In July 2017 Vizio sued LeEco claiming that it failed to pay $60 million of a $100 million breakup fee. The suit was later settled by the companies in November 2018 on undisclosed terms.[34]
From the year 2016 onwards, Vizio launched its SmartCast across all television sets including apps such as Netflix, YouTube and Disney+.[35]
In 2018, Vizio launched a free streaming service called WatchFree, powered by Pluto TV, on its SmartCast platform.[36][37]
As of 2021, Vizio had 527 employees across the U.S. in states including California,[38] South Dakota,[39] Washington,[40] Arkansas, Minnesota, Texas,[41] and New York.[42] The company reported total revenue of $2.04 billion and net income of $102.5 million by the end of 2020.[43]
As of 2020, Vizio was the second largest seller of flat-panel televisions in the US.[44] As of March 1, 2021, the company has sold over 11 million sound bars and 80 million TVs,[45] and has more than 12 million active SmartCast accounts.[46]
In March 2021, Vizio filed for an IPO.[47][48] In the same month, Vizio was listed on the New York Stock Exchange[49][50] under the symbol VZIO.[45]
In October 2021, Vizio was sued by the Software Freedom Conservancy for GPL violations.[51] On October 19, 2021, Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) filed a lawsuit against Vizio Inc. because the company failed to fulfill the requirements of the GNU General Public License by failing to provide the source code. SFC stated in the lawsuit that Vizio was "not providing and technical information that copyleft licenses require, Vizio was not even informing its customers about copylefted software and the rights it gives them as consumers."[52][53] On November 29, 2021, Vizio filed a request to remove the case into US federal court.[54][55] On May 13, 2022, federal district court judge Josephine Staton sided with SFC and granted a motion to send the lawsuit back to Superior Court, to answer breach-of-contract claims.[56]
In February 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that major retailer Walmart had launched talks to acquire Vizio for $2.3 billion with the view to create a more potent rival to Amazon’s booming ad business.[57] Both Walmart and Sam's Club had long sold Vizio products. Announced that month, the acquisition would make the company part of Walmart's US segment in an effort to support the retailer's high-margin advertising business, Walmart Connect. A columnist for The Wall Street Journal suggested the move would put great pressure on a competitor in the space, Roku, citing sector analyst opinion.[58][59][60]