LeEco is a big player in mobile over in China, having created flagship phones like the Le Max 2. The company has made lots of other electronics, though, and today it revealed that it’s going to become a big part of the American electronics market.
LeEco will acquire Vizio for $2 billion. Vizio is primarily known for its televisions, like the P-Series sets that we recently unboxed, but they’ve also dipped their toes into Android. For example, Vizio released a 10-inch tablet a few years ago, and the aforementioned P-Series TV set ships with a 6-inch Android tablet that you use as a remote.
Once Vizio is acquired by LeEco, it’ll be operated as an independent subsidiary and the current management will remain in California. LeEco CEO Jia Yueting commented on the deal, saying, “We hope that we can use the ecosystem model and create a great integration between Vizio and LeEco and create new values for U.S. users.”
LeEco is about to make a splash in the U.S. market. Not only is the company buying Vizio, a well-known U.S. electronics company, but LeEco has said previously that it wants to bring its phones and video streaming service to the U.S. in the fall of 2016. With the acquisition of Vizio, LeEco could combine the Vizio name that U.S. consumers are familiar with and LeEco’s mobile experience to try and gain traction in the U.S.