Vizio Inc. (stylized as VIZIO) is an American publicly traded company that designs and sells
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
s,
sound bar
A soundbar, sound bar or media bar is a type of loudspeaker that projects audio from a wide enclosure. It is much wider than it is tall, partly for acoustic reasons, and partly so it can be mounted above or below a display device (e.g. above a c ...
s, viewer data, and advertising. The company was founded in 2002 and is based in
Irvine, California
Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...
.
[Lawton, Christopher, Iwatani Kane, Yukari and Dean, Jason]
U.S. Upstart Takes On TV Giants in Price War
", ''The Wall Street Journal'', 2008-04-15. Retrieved on April 15, 2008.
History
The company was founded in 2002 as V Inc. by entrepreneur
William Wang
William Wang () is a Taiwanese American billionaire entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of Vizio.
Early life
Wang was born in Taipei, Taiwan, moved to Hawaii, United States at the age of 12, and then to California at the age of 14. He atten ...
and two founding employees. By 2004, Wang changed the company name to Vizio.
In 2006, the company's revenue was estimated at $700 million, and in 2007 it was estimated to have exceeded $2 billion. Vizio is known for selling its HDTVs at lower prices than its competitors.
On October 19, 2010, Vizio signed a 4-year contract to sponsor U.S.
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
's annual
Rose Bowl game in
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
I ...
, beginning with the
2011 Rose Bowl and ending with the
2014 Vizio BCS National Championship Game. When the Rose Bowl contract ended, Vizio signed a contract to sponsor the
Fiesta Bowl
The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...
making the official name the Vizio Fiesta Bowl.
In late 2014, Vizio acquired Advanced Media Research Group, Inc., the parent of entertainment website
BuddyTV
BuddyTV is an entertainment-based website, which generates content about television programs and sporting events. The website publishes information about celebrity and related entertainment news through a series of articles, entertainment profile ...
.
On July 24, 2015, Vizio filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to $172.5 million in an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...
of Class A
common stock
Common stock is a form of corporate equity ownership, a type of security. The terms voting share and ordinary share are also used frequently outside of the United States. They are known as equity shares or ordinary shares in the UK and other Com ...
; however, the IPO was never completed.
In August 2015, Vizio acquired Cognitive Media Networks, Inc, a provider of
automatic content recognition
Automatic content recognition (ACR) is a technology to identify content played on a media device or present within a media file. Devices implementing ACR can allow the device or the manufacturer to collect content consumption information automatic ...
(ACR).
Cognitive Media Networks was subsequently renamed
Inscape Data.
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.
In November 2015, the
U.S. Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction o ...
(FTC) and Office of the
New Jersey Attorney General
The attorney general of New Jersey is a member of the executive cabinet of the state and oversees the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, Department of Law and Public Safety. The office is appointed by the governor of New Jersey, confir ...
brought charges against Vizio, alleging it collected non-personal information on its customers and sold it to advertisers. In February 2017, Vizio agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle the charges. 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.
On July 26, 2016, Chinese electronics company
LeEco
LeEco () is a Chinese company founded by Jia Yueting, the founder of Le.com (formerly LeTV). The group maintains businesses in video streaming, cloud services, software development, consumer electronics, such as smartphones, smart TVs, VR, elect ...
announced that it would acquire Vizio for US$2 billion;
however, the acquisition was cancelled in April 2017.
From the year 2016 onwards, Vizio launched its SmartCast across all television sets including apps such as
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
,
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
and
Disney+
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...
.
In 2018, Vizio launched a free streaming service called WatchFree, powered by
Pluto TV
Pluto TV is a free, ad-supported video streaming service owned and operated by the Paramount Streaming division of Paramount Global. Co-founded by Tom Ryan, Ilya Pozin and Nick Grouf in 2013 and based in Los Angeles, California, in the United Sta ...
, on its SmartCast platform.
As of 2021, Vizio had 527 employees across the U.S. in states including
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
,
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...
,
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
,
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, and
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
. The company reported total revenue of $2.04 billion and net income of $102.5 million by the end of 2020.
Vizio was the second largest seller of
flat-screen televisions in the US. , the company has sold over 11 million
sound bars and 80 million TVs,
and has more than 12 million active SmartCast accounts.
In March 2021, Vizio filed for an IPO. In the same month, Vizio was listed on the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
under the symbol VZIO.
In October 2021, Vizio was sued by the
Software Freedom Conservancy
Software Freedom Conservancy, Inc. is an organization that provides a non-profit home and infrastructure support for free and open source software projects. The organization was established in 2006, and as of June 2022, had over 40 member pro ...
for
GPL
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...
violations.
Products
Vizio produces television sets and soundbars and has previously produced tablets, mobile phones and computers. Vizio manufactures its products in Mexico, China, and Vietnam under agreements with
ODM assemblers in those countries.
Television sets
Television sets are Vizio's primary product category, and in 2007 the company became the largest
LCD TV
Liquid-crystal-display televisions (LCD TVs) are television sets that use liquid-crystal displays to produce images. They are, by far, the most widely produced and sold television display type. LCD TVs are thin and light, but have some disadvantag ...
seller (by volume) in North America. In February 2009, Vizio announced they would stop production of
plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
televisions and would focus on the LED-backlit LCD displays .
In March 2016, Vizio announced the release of SmartCast TVs that allowed users to control the screen from a tablet or mobile app. The following year, Vizio relaunched its smart TV platform to include apps directly on the screen, including
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...
and
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
.
In 2018, Vizio released its first Quantum Dot LED 4K TV. Vizio has added functionality for
Google Assistant
Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on mobile and home automation devices. Based on artificial intelligence, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike t ...
and
Alexa
Alexa may refer to: Technology
*Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon
* Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service
* Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera
People
*Alexa (name), a given name and ...
-enabled devices, Apple Airplay2, Apple HomeKit and gaming features for its SmartCast TVs.
Sound bars
Vizio's sound bar products are named by series, including the V-Series, M-Series, and Elevate. Series names pair with suggested TV products.
In 2013, Vizio released the Home Theater Sound Bar, a surround sound home audio system."
In 2018, the company released its first
Dolby Atmos
Dolby Atmos is a surround sound technology developed by Dolby Laboratories. It expands on existing surround sound systems by adding height channels, allowing sounds to be interpreted as three-dimensional objects with neither horizontal, nor verti ...
soundbars. In 2020, Vizio released the Elevate soundbar, the first Atmos soundbar with rotating speakers.
At CES 2020, Vizio earned the CES innovation award product designation for the Elevate sound bar.
Vizio's audio collection includes entry and mid-level sound bars that include surround sound, as well as premium versions.
SmartCast
![Vizio SmartCast](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Vizio_SmartCast.jpg)
SmartCast is the operating system/platform that Vizio uses in all their smart TVs. It uses both
Chromecast
Chromecast is a line of digital media players developed by Google. The devices, designed as small dongles, can play Internet-streamed audio-visual content on a high-definition television or home audio system. The user can control playback with ...
and
Apple AirPlay. In June 2021 Vizio updated SmartCast with a Vizio voice feature. The platform allows access to a limited number of streaming apps like
Apple TV+
Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...
,
Disney+
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...
,
Hulu
Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...
,
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
and
Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service prim ...
.
Past products
Vizio has previously produced other products in addition to televisions and soundbars. In 2011, Vizio introduced the Via Tablet and Via Phone, its first tablet and mobile phone products. The following year, Vizio began producing laptops, creating a lineup of PC computers that came in ultrabook and notebook models. Also in 2012, Vizio introduced several HD
Android smartphones in Asian markets, including China, and began selling the "Vizio Co-Star," a
Google TV Google TV may refer to:
* Google TV (interface), an updated interface of Android TV launched in 2020
* Google TV (service), a video-on-demand service formerly known as Google Play Movies & TV
* Google TV (operating system), a discontinued operating ...
digital media player. In 2013, the company released the Vizio Tablet PC, its first Windows 8 tablet. The company stopped producing tablets and computers in 2014.
Lawsuit
On October 19, 2021,
Software Freedom Conservancy
Software Freedom Conservancy, Inc. is an organization that provides a non-profit home and infrastructure support for free and open source software projects. The organization was established in 2006, and as of June 2022, had over 40 member pro ...
filed a lawsuit against Vizio Inc. because the company failed to fulfill the requirements of the
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...
by failing to provide the source code. Software Freedom Conservancy states in the lawsuit that Vizio is "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." On November 29, 2021, Vizio filed a request to remove the case into US federal court. On Friday, 13 May 2022,
Federal District Judge Josephine Staton
Josephine Laura Staton, formerly Josephine Staton Tucker (born 1961), is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Early life and education
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Staton gr ...
sided with Software Freedom Conservancy and granted a motion to send the lawsuit back to
Superior Court
In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...
, to answer breach-of-contract claims.
References
{{reflist
External links
Official website
American companies established in 2002
Electronics companies established in 2002
Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States
Companies based in Irvine, California
Consumer electronics brands
Display technology companies
Electronics companies of the United States
Loudspeaker manufacturers
Video equipment manufacturers
2002 establishments in California
Manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
2021 initial public offerings