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Original URL: http://www.cnet.com/news/chinese-conglomerate-leeco-acquires-vizio-for-2-billion/
Chinese conglomerate LeEco just spent $2 billion to get its foot in the door of the US television market.
Along with Samsung, Vizio has been one of the two most-popular TV brands in the US over the last few years. Vizio TVs are among CNET's most-recommended models.
The news, rumored for the last couple of weeks, came from Vizio founder and CEO William Wang on stage at a joint press event in Hollywood. Vizio's hardware and software businesses will be owned and operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of LeEco, while the Vizio's data business, Inscape, will be spun off.
[...] "Fourteen years ago, I mortgaged my house to start Vizio, and since then, it has grown into one of the most well-known and respected CE brands in North America. As an entrepreneur, I couldn't be more proud of what has been accomplished," said Wang.
ArsTechnica also notes:
Wang will still be connected to Vizio, however, by becoming chairman and CEO of Inscape, a separate business that will carry Vizio's controversial torch of mining TV viewers' data for advertising and other data-driven services. Wang will be a 51-percent stakeholder in Inscape, with LeEco owning the other 49 percent and licensing Inscape's offerings for Vizio products for 10 years.
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(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:47PM
They are a mostly US brand. They went from my never having heard of them to all televisions of everyone I know, save one, being of Vizio brand. They made some good advertising/sponsorship deals, especially the NCAA football system, and the cost per square inch of screen size is very good. So they are popular for those who want the biggest screen for the least cost for the big games. The trade-off, of course, is the feature set isn't up to the level of other televisions, which some may actually see as a feature, the pixel pitch is a bit large, the screen response a little laggy, and the overall quality is low. But again, you want a big screen that looks nice for sports and is cheap, Vizio is a good choice.