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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday July 30 2016, @02:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the yes-his-name-is-willy-wang dept.

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.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:26PM

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday July 30 2016, @03:26PM (#381966) Homepage

    " Along with Samsung, Vizio has been one of the two most-popular TV brands in the US over the last few years. "

    Popular for welfare queens, that is.

    " "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. "

    Right, like how Daewoo shook up America's auto industry.

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:07PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:07PM (#381977) Journal

      TVs are commodities. They are cheaper and lighter than ever before, and don't need to be replaced that often (even the Chinese brands).

      On a whim, I searched my first sentence and found this lie [tradimo.com]:

      An example for a good that is not a commodity are TV sets. They have many aspects of product differentiation, such as the brand, the perceived quality or the user interface. Thus, the demand for a specific TV set can be much larger than the demand for another.

      Literally none of that shit matters. 4K doesn't matter. 3D doesn't matter. The Internet/UI features don't matter. All that matters is that the thing can put out 1080p, has a couple of USB and HDMI ports, and is available at the size you want and the lowest price. And that price is likely lower than you think, because if a truck driver accidentally gets more of these flat things loaded onto their truck than they were supposed to, they will claim them for themselves.

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      [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:35PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @04:35PM (#381984)

        This (commodity) might be true this year?

        ~5 years ago when we bought a ~42" we looked carefully at different models to see how well they handled objects moving quickly across the screen. There were big differences in the visual artifacts when the scene was moving/changing quickly -- just a guess, there were differences in how well/quickly they decompressed the image data? Wound up with a Samsung that happens to also be rated for 3D, although we've only watched a couple of 3D movies. It still has some odd visual problems, but not many.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:29PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:29PM (#381993)

          Ok, friend, don't take this as an insult, it's not.

          You're in the 10%.

          Not the 1%!

          But you still have the time and money and concentration and ability and taste to discern between movement with ghosting or none. You probably are a tech worker earning six figures. 90% of the US earns less than you and your partner. When they go in to walmart and there's a wall of TV and one is the size they want and is cheaper than the others at that size, it's probably the one they're getting.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @09:26PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @09:26PM (#382060)

            Interesting comment, not sure why you care? You are correct that I often find the time to research purchases to get something that will do a good job of meeting my (perceived) needs. The expensive 42" Samsung replaced a 25" tube TV that I'd fixed a few times and was really sick of working on...

            According to this page, http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/income-rank/ [cnn.com] I'm just outside the top 10% -- but that's on income only. Looking at net worth (own my house, nearing retirement age with savings, etc), I'm doing considerably better, well into the top 10%, http://www.financialsamurai.com/top-one-percent-net-worth-amounts-by-age/ [financialsamurai.com]

            A long time ago I realized that I didn't want to grow old and rely on others (or future gov't benefits) to be comfortable, so savings has been a top priority.

            Anyone know of a better calculator for this stuff?

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:08PM

    by Bot (3902) on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:08PM (#381991) Journal

    I look forward to hook up with one of these chinese telescreens, they tell me they are kinder and good looking. I also guess the Chinese are decades ahead in telescreen design.

    --
    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:01PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:01PM (#382035)

      Not really, Samsung began making them in 1969.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by fritsd on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:21PM

      by fritsd (4586) on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:21PM (#382041) Journal

      Just ensure you comb your hair before standing in front of it, Winston Smith!

      And no hanky panky -- I've patented using time-domain fourier transform motion capture(*), so that when a rhythmic movement in front of the camera occurs, the frequency is first analyzed, and when it falls within a certain range, the camera stream will be upgraded to a higher level of event monitoring, and will be sent to a select group of "grandmother" agents in your neighbourhood watch centre, to review if whatever you're doing [dilbert.com] falls within socially acceptable behaviour parameters.

      For The Greater Good. (The Greater Good [wikipedia.org])

      Let's call it the TheresaMayCam(TM)!

      (*) unfortunately not, otherwise I'd be rich!

  • (Score: 2) by KritonK on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:41PM

    by KritonK (465) on Saturday July 30 2016, @05:41PM (#381996)

    This must be a US-only brand, as it is the first time I hear of Vizio.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @06:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @06:11PM (#382005)

      It's a program for drawing network diagrams and stuff like that. Microsoft never marketed it much even in the USA but it dominates its niche.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @11:30PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @11:30PM (#382098)

        Wrong spelling -- microsoft.office.com/Visioā€ˇ

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 30 2016, @08:47PM (#382046)

      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.