Vizio has filed to go public and expects to raise $172.5 million from its initial public offering. Underwriters include BofA Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank Securities, and Citigroup. Fortune reports that the company will use the symbol VZIO and sell Class A shares. As discussed in the article below and in the referenced Engadget article, one way that Vizio could generate more revenue is by monitoring and making available to "advertisers and media content providers" information about what you watch using Inscape software that collects "viewing behavior from any content displayed on the screens of our Smart TVs."
From Fortune
Vizio Inc., a company who made a name for itself selling budget-friendly televisions, is ready to go public. The California company filed its Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
According to the filing, the company plans on raising $172.5 million from its initial public offering; a number that's likely to get bigger as the IPO date nears. Using ticker symbol "VZIO," the company will sell Class A shares. Pricing and exact listing date have yet to be determined.
The filing also sheds some light on Vizio's performance since its inception in 2002. The company has sold over 15 million "smart" TVs, with 65 million total TV sets sold to date, while its connected products have streamed "more than 3 billion hours of entertainment."
Vizio products are available in some 8,000 retail locations throughout the U.S., resulting in $45 million in net income and $3.1 billion in revenue for 2014. For the first half of 2015, Vizio reported $1.3 billion in revenue with a net income of $31.4 million.
But enough numbers, let's talk product strategy.
Vizio uses technology integrated into its televisions to determine what a user is watching, regardless of the source. In other words, Vizio knows what you're watching even if it's a DVD being played on a gaming console or show being watched via cable TV.
As first explained by Engadget, the identification technology can differentiate between 100 billion anonymized viewing data points. The end result is an inside look at the viewing patterns and habits of its customers. Vizio believes it can use this knowledge to deliver customized content and ads to its users, further driving revenue and increasing engagement with its users.
To read the complete Fortune article, click here.
Additional Resources
• Vizio IPO plan shows how its TVs track what you're watching at Engadget.com.
• Vizio Unveils New Ultra HD Tvs at Spring Line Show at HomeTheaterReview.com.