U.S Company Vizio bought by Chinese tech company LeEco for $2 billion

[GoodBytes]

If you not familiar, Vizio is a US company which started in 2002 making affordable, yet impressively specs TVs (they also do lower-end tier TVs for Walmart and BestBuy). If you wonder, their TVs range from $150 USD, 32inch TV, extremely basic and lackluster, all the way up to really fancy, thin border, 4K, HDR ready, fast smartTV, LED array backlight, with all the bells and whistles you can ask, 120inch TVs costing $130,000 US.

 

The company has started to really be noticed by people and really grow in 2012. They also make speaker setups for home entertainment, and they used to make aluminum body laptops and all-in-one PCs which really turned heads, sadly, being limited to only select stores, such as Walmart, the company didn't sale these system well, and restricted in budget market preventing them to make ground breaking systems and left.

 

 

 

Today, Vizio announces that they are being bought for $2 billion US by a Chinese company LeEco, presumingly because the company want to enter

 

Quote

Chinese electronics firm LeEco is buying American TV manufacturer Vizio for $2 billion. The acquisition was announced during a press event this morning in Los Angeles, giving LeEco an instant foothold in the US television market. Under the deal, Vizio will be operated as an independent subsidiary, with the company's current management team staying in place and working out of its offices in Southern California. Vizio's data business, Inscape, will be spun out into a privately held company, with LeEco owning 49 percent. Vizio CEO William Wang will serve as chairman and CEO of Inscape, owning the remaining 51 percent. The LeEco deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

 

If you are not familiar with LeEco (Leshi Internet Information & Technology), it is a large company in China. LeEco (founded in 2004) become largest online video companies in China in its early days. Today, the company is doing Internet TV, video production and distribution, making a variety of 'smart gadgets', eco-agriculture,  bluetooth headphones, TVs, 3D Helmets for VR, mountain bikes, and Internet-linked electric cars, as well as driveless cars. And, in addition, the company has up to know 6 smartphones released, where the latest models ditch the headphone jack, as Apple is rumor to do as well in its coming up iPhone.

 

The CEO and founder of Vizio said in a statement:

Quote

I have mixed feelings. As the owner and father of Vizio, I am very reluctant to let it go. But as the CEO and owner of the company, I know this is the right decision to make for our hardworking employees and loyal shareholders.

 

Buying Vizio would allow the company to expand in the TV manufacturing market.

 

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/26/12286756/leeco-buys-vizio-tv-company-2-billion-acquisition

 

[themctipers]

Expect chingerish in manuals!

/s

[themaniac]

the chinese are buying every us company how long until apple, google, microsoft, etc are bought by the chinese

[AresKrieger]

Beware the Chinese invasion!!!

 

 

Though I'm sure all of Vizio's products were already made in China anyway

[evilarceus]

I think China's getting inspired to buy US companies cause of Donald Trump.

 

[Cracklingice]

Wait, so Vizio was a US company?  I just assumed the whole time it was Jap or something.  It does sound like it.  That and the price.  My dad bought a Vizio way back in like 2002-2005.  That TV lasted (with a repair or two) until like 2015 or something.  Then he got an RCA to replace it and the input board went out in the first year.  Seems like it's a common problem with this TV.  Don't expect it to last longer than a few months after the warranty period before needing a new set again.  It's just not worth repairing them unless it's under warranty now.

[GoodBytes]

10 minutes ago, Cracklingice said:

Wait, so Vizio was a US company?  I just assumed the whole time it was Jap or something.  It does sound like it.  That and the price.  My dad bought a Vizio way back in like 2002-2005.  That TV lasted (with a repair or two) until like 2015 or something.  Then he got an RCA to replace it and the input board went out in the first year.  Seems like it's a common problem with this TV.  Don't expect it to last longer than a few months after the warranty period before needing a new set again.  It's just not worth repairing them unless it's under warranty now.

Yea. Even their call support line is in the US. Not outsourced.

 

This is an interview that TheVerge did when Vizio entered the PC space 4 years ago (of course, market has changed since, but interesting)

 

[Cracklingice]

23 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Yea. Even their call support line is in the US. Not outsourced.

T

Spoiler

 

his is an interview that TheVerge did when Vizio entered the PC space 4 years ago (of course, market has changed since, but interesting)

 

 

 

 

I love how he calls replaceable batteries and access doors to upgrade or replace failed components - legacy.

It's like he applies the keep it right mentality to the OS and then says eff it, seal it up so they're more likely to buy another computer than replace a failed component or upgrade ram / storage.

 

Do they still make any computers?

[GoodBytes]

45 minutes ago, Cracklingice said:

I love how he calls replaceable batteries and access doors to upgrade or replace failed components - legacy.

It's like he applies the keep it right mentality to the OS and then says eff it, seal it up so they're more likely to buy another computer than replace a failed component or upgrade ram / storage.

 

Do they still make any computers?

Haha! Yea! I mean I never saw a tear down of a Vizio system, so I don't know if it's a big panel that you remove under and access to the battery and RAM, similarity to Dell XPS series (well RAM is soldered on Dell's), or if it is Apple soldered and super glued on. But yea, not for people who travels a lot and carry a second battery on them, and easy swap.

 

Sadly I don't see them on their website, so I would assume no. I know that the systems, based on reviews, that they tried to make a serious premium laptop, but constrained with Walmart consumer budget, as they were only sold there, from my understanding, so they had to cheap out on a few things which hurt them. They should have focused on direct to consumer and maybe selling it at select BestBuy in areas where people have a wider budget for electronics (basically the ones that sell their high end TV models, over the low end crappy ones)

[Curufinwe_wins]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Haha! Yea! I mean I never saw a tear down of a Vizio system, so I don't know if it's a big panel that you remove under and access to the battery and RAM, similarity to Dell XPS series (well RAM is soldered on Dell's), or if it is Apple soldered and super glued on. But yea, not for people who travels a lot and carry a second battery on them, and easy swap.

 

Sadly I don't see them on their website, so I would assume no. I know that the systems, based on reviews, that they tried to make a serious premium laptop, but constrained with Walmart consumer budget, as they were only sold there, from my understanding, so they had to cheap out on a few things which hurt them. They should have focused on direct to consumer and maybe selling it at select BestBuy in areas where people have a wider budget for electronics (basically the ones that sell their high end TV models, over the low end crappy ones)

I have like three early-generation LCD Vizio TV's. Mainly case we were cheap years ago. They still work fine, but man the picture quality on my 21" is abhorrent (it's a 1080p tv, but it's grainy as balls).

[SansVarnic]

I own a Vizio 65" 4K Smart TV, very well made and a great picture.

To bad that it is being bought out.  (especially to China of all places.)

I thought is was cool that it is one of the few electronic items produced domestically in the US.

Guess I will have to look somewhere else when I am ready to replace my TV though as I am sure that the quality will drop, I don't think they will continue to produce here, big bummer to the employees of Vizio, time to get those resumes out and dust them off.  

[themctipers]

2 hours ago, themaniac said:

the chinese are buying every us company how long until apple, google, microsoft, etc are bought by the chinese

Pretty sure the Chinese already bought apple

 

-a Chinese man typing this on an iPhone 

[themaniac]

Just now, themctipers said:

Pretty sure the Chinese already bought apple

 

-a Chinese man typing this on an iPhone 

fuck whats next all of the us being bought by the chinese

[themctipers]

2 minutes ago, themaniac said:

fuck whats next all of the us being bought by the chinese

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

[SansVarnic]

8 minutes ago, themaniac said:

fuck whats next all of the us being bought by the chinese

Thanks to a specific administration for putting the US into a unimaginable debt, the US owes China a great deal of money. Its like the man walked up to China and said "hey we wanna spend some major monies, would you all be so kinda as to give us unlimited credit?" this way China take over te US by attrition instead of by other less than likely means..... 

[HalGameGuru]

2 hours ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

I have like three early-generation LCD Vizio TV's. Mainly case we were cheap years ago. They still work fine, but man the picture quality on my 21" is abhorrent (it's a 1080p tv, but it's grainy as balls).

If memory serves, depending on how early those are, Vizio was one of the makes that got in trouble for labeling TV's that could accept 1080p signal as being 1080p when the panels were either a much lower resolution or could not display 1080p without downgrading it.

 

A lot did that kind of thing though. Vizio in more recent years, especially at the higher end had very competitive state-of-the-art models.

[Curufinwe_wins]

6 minutes ago, HalGameGuru said:

If memory serves, depending on how early those are, Vizio was one of the makes that got in trouble for labeling TV's that could accept 1080p signal as being 1080p when the panels were either a much lower resolution or could not display 1080p without downgrading it.

 

A lot did that kind of thing though. Vizio in more recent years, especially at the higher end had very competitive state-of-the-art models.

It's possible. But the pixels don't look abnormally messed up in size or number when compared to my old 15 inch laptop (I used the TV as a second monitor for years).

 

It just was SUPER grainy (like someone passed a noising filter through it or something). I do remember there used to be lots of issues with Matte coatings affecting screen quality though, and this was a matte display.

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, HalGameGuru said:

If memory serves, depending on how early those are, Vizio was one of the makes that got in trouble for labeling TV's that could accept 1080p signal as being 1080p when the panels were either a much lower resolution or could not display 1080p without downgrading it.

 

A lot did that kind of thing though. Vizio in more recent years, especially at the higher end had very competitive state-of-the-art models.

Possible. I mean from what I can see, as mentioned in my post, they made and still making ultra cheap TVs and super high-end ones. I mean they should not have done it in the first place, of course. But I would imagine it was the more lower end ones. That is similar to what Dell faced and still facing today, where their low-end system ruins the company image, while the high end system are ones one can recommend. Lenovo consumer low end laptop are seriously awful, and I think they'll get hit with Lenovo = crappy. Well, Lenovo is lucky, people associated them with IBM system back in the days. Vizio doesn't have this luxury, and I am sure this issue really hurt them, and took many more years to repair their image of their products.

[EChondo]

Damn, I have three 32" 1080p TV's from Vizio from 6-7 years ago, all still working great. And I just bought one of their 4k TV's.

 

Great company, though a little curious to see how this acquisition plays out. Hopefully not much changes or things get better!