vizio inc. type privately owned industry consumer electronics founded october 2002 ; 14 years ago 2002 10 as v inc. costa mesa california u.s. founder william wang headquarters irvine california u.s. key people william wang ceo matthew mcrae cto products av electronics ; lcd tvs surround sound systems hdtv accessories lcd computer monitors laptops all in one personal computers telecommunications revenue 3.1 billion 2014 1 parent leeco website www.vizio.com vizio inc. is an american privately held company that develops consumer electronics . headquartered in irvine california united states the company was founded in october 2002 as v inc. and is best known as a producer of affordable flat screen televisions . 2 in july 2016 vizio announced that it would be acquired by chinese technology company leeco . contents 1 history 2 products 2.1 television sets 2.2 tablets 2.3 ultrabook 2.4 mobile phones 2.5 google tv 2.6 sound bars 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was founded in 2002 as v inc. by william wang chinese ; pinyin w ng w i laynie newsome and ken lowe with 600 000 and three employees . in 2006 the revenue was estimated around 700 million and in 2007 it was estimated to have exceeded 2 billion . vizio is known for aggressively pricing their hdtvs against major competitors . 2 on october 19 2010 vizio signed a 4 year contract to sponsor college football s annual rose bowl game in pasadena california beginning with the 2011 rose bowl presented by vizio and ending with the 2014 vizio bcs national championship game . 3 when the rose bowl contract ended vizio signed a contract to sponsor the fiesta bowl making the official name the vizio fiesta bowl . as of 2012 vizio has over 400 employees . 4 about half work at its headquarters in irvine california in engineering design sales and operations while the other half are employed at a call center in dakota dunes south dakota . 4 5 vizio also manufactures its products in mexico and china under agreements with odm assemblers in those countries . 6 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 . bank of america merrill lynch deutsche bank securities and citigroup are among the underwriters of the ipo vizio told the u.s. securities and exchange commission in a preliminary prospectus . the filing did not reveal how many shares the company planned to sell or their expected price . the company has applied to list its class a common stock on the nasdaq global select market under the symbol vzio . 7 on august 10 2015 vizio acquired cognitive media networks inc a market leading provider of automatic content recognition acr . 8 the cognitive network business was subsequently renamed inscape data services . 9 on december 31 2014 vizio acquired advanced media research group inc. the parent of entertainment website buddytv in order to expand content and service offerings from vizio s smart tv platform . 10 on july 26 2016 vizio ceo william wang announced that chinese technology company leeco was acquiring vizio in a us 2 billion deal with plans to run the company as a wholly owned subsidiary . inscape will be spin off and operate as a separate privately owned company led by wang . 11 products edit television sets edit vizio primarily produces television sets . vizio became the largest lcd tv seller by volume in north america for the second quarter of 2007 with 606 402 tvs sold a 76 % jump from the previous quarter . its market share increased from 9.4 % to 14.5 % . 12 in september 2008 vizio started selling lcd tvs to costco in japan . in february 2009 vizio announced they would stop production of plasma televisions and would focus on the led backlit lcd displays instead . 13 at the ces 2009 vizio introduced a 240 hz led backlit vf551xvt 55 lcd tv . vizio unveiled a new range of televisions including vizio s m line with 65 inch screens ; ultra wide televisions with 50 58 and 71 inch screen sizes ; two all in one desktop computers 24 inch and 27 inch ; three notebooks one 14 inch and two 15 inch ; and a 10 inch tablet at the 2012 international consumer electronics show . 14 15 vizio smart tv sets track viewers habits and share them with advertisers a practice that cable tv companies are prohibited from doing but that vizio says is legal for tv manufacturers . 16 vizio also produces other audio video equipment such as high definition surround sound systems lcd monitors and hdtv accessories . the company released its first blu ray disc player in august 2009 . 17 in 2011 vizio extended its portfolio of electronics devices to mobile phones with the name via phone and tablets named via tablet . the new phones and tablets were shown at 2011 consumer electronics show . 18 see specifics below . tablets edit vtab1008 8.1 6.6 0.48 thick . 1024x768 resolution 19 vizio tablet pc 11.6 1080p dual core amd z60 windows 8 20 ultrabook edit in 2012 vizio introduced its 14 inch ultrabook vizio ct14 with the third generation intel core i7 processors and 128 gb ssd . 21 on october 2012 vizio updated this series with a new windows 8 os . this change was also applied to the vizio notebook series . mobile phones edit vizio also introduced several new full 1080p hd android smartphones in the asian markets but particularly china . 22 the devices feature high end specs with the 5 inch vp800 featuring 2 gb ram full hd display and 8mp camera . the more budget oriented vp600 features a dual core processor 4.7 inch 720p hd display and android jelly bean os . 23 vizio announced these developments in a press release ; however past media releases show that this is not vizio s first product in the mobile telephony sector . 24 google tv edit the company introduced the vizio co star a google tv digital media player in 2012 . 25 sound bars edit a vizio sound bar model s3821w was recommended by consumer reports as its best buy based on a combination of quality and price in a comparison of competing sound bars dated january 2014 . 26 references edit on marketing . vizio on the forbes america s largest private companies list . forbes . a b 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 . chris casacchia 2010 10 19 . vizio nabs four year rose bowl presenting sponsorship . orange county business journal . a b nilay patel 2012 06 15 . vizio reboots the pc a quiet american success story takes on sleeping giants . the verge . retrieved 2012 08 26 . dave dreeszen 2010 02 24 . vizio direct leaves north sioux for the dunes . sioux city journal . retrieved 2012 08 26 . wsj staff . vizio ceo predicts declining tv prices possible ipo . wsj . edgar search results . cognitive networks portfolio dcm . inscape data services vizio . vizio holdings inc. class a common stock prospectus . visio . 2015 09 25 . retrieved 2016 02 12 . vizio being sold to leeco . 26 july 2016 . vizio tops in lcd tv sales in second quarter . cnet . another manufacturer drops plasma . the new york times . andrew tarantola . vizio plans to beat pc s sleepy giants at their own game . gizmodo . gawker media . jesus diaz . the new vizio pcs and notebooks are worthy of apple . gizmodo . gawker media . own a vizio smart tv it s watching you . business insider . 15 november 2015 . vizio s vbr100 blu ray player delayed until august yukari iwatani kane 2 january 2011 . vizio to introduce tablet cellphone wsj . wsj . vizio tablet vtab1008 review a pleasant surprise at a value price . pcworld . 24 september 2011 . http www.engadget.com 2013 01 06 vizio tablet pc windows 8 tablet vizio debuts its first windows 8 tablet vizio ultrabook dead link vizio shows off new hd smartphones for china . phone arena . simon hill 7 january 2013 . vizio unveils two hd android smartphones but only for china digital trends . digital trends . news and press vizio unveils new smartphone and tablet featuring via plus for even more entertainment freedom vizio . bishop bryan . vizio introduces google tv powered vap430 media streamer . the verge . retrieved 17 april 2012 . consumer reports webpage . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title vizio & oldid 744527704 categories companies based in irvine californiaelectronics companies of the united statescompanies established in 2002consumer electronics brandsdisplay technology companies2002 establishments in californiahidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from april 2015pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersarticles containing chinese language text navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages e tinaespa olfran ais bahasa indonesia edit links this page was last modified on 15 october 2016 at 20 35 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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