With Vizio under LeEco, the Chinese company is in a unique position to offer its “Le Ecosystem” comprised of hardware, software, content, and applications, the four key pillars it has identified as crucial to breaking into markets beyond China.
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For those not familiar with LeEco – formally LeTV – the company was founded in 2004 and has grown to be one of the largest online video companies in China.
Vizio, a maker of affordable flat-screen TVs, will continue to operate at its Irvine, California headquarters, according to the statement.
In addition to its work in TV and entertainment, LeEco also makes phones, has an e-commerce business called LeMall (think Chinese Amazon), and is developing a fully autonomous vehicle platform. The company’s chairman and CEO, billionaire Jia Yueting, is also behind Faraday Future, an electric auto company building a massive plant near Las Vegas.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year. In April, it set up its United States headquarters in Silicon Valley and bought about 200,000 square metres of land in Santa Clara from Yahoo for US$250 million in June.
Cheng said LeEco is also planning an initial public offering of stock in the USA within four years to raise money for video content and research and development.
For its USA expansion plans, LeEco is likely to import its over-the-top (OTT) business model and has been said to be in talks with distributors to secure content for its service, according to media reports.
Founded in 2004, LeEco started selling smartphones in China in April a year ago.
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Media reports also suggest that LeEco may be planning to bring its smart televisions and even virtual reality headsets to India, following the success it has seen with smartphone sales.
