The Irvine-based firm’s March 25 IPO was its second attempt at going public, and comes as Vizio aims to sell investors, consumers and advertisers on its abilities beyond simply a TV maker.
“It’s been a pretty amazing day for Vizio,” Founder, Chairman and CEO William Wang told the Business Journal from New York, where he was on-site for the first day of trading and to ring the closing bell.
Vizio shares (NYSE: VZIO) were trading about a dollar higher than their $21 opening price as of midday Friday, but Wang said he wasn’t concerned at the initial returns and the purpose of the offering was not to “raise a bunch of capital.”
Rather, it was to help with factors such as attracting more talent and providing shareholder liquidity, he said.
The CEO pointed out the company’s been investing in the business for several years, generating money organically.
The Vizio business, which netted income of $102.5 million on total revenue of $2 billion, is split into two divisions. First are devices, the legacy flat-screen TVs and soundbars the brand was built on, which grew 6.9% in 2020 to $1.9 billion.
Growth Potential
The other bucket of business, called Platform+, involves the SmartCast operating system in Vizio TVs that generates money off the sale of ads, video on demand and licensing.
That business, which grew 133% last year to $147.2 million in revenue, represents Vizio’s future as the company sets out to build out an ecosystem where its TVs are central to connectivity within and among households.
“It’s growing at such a rapid pace and gives us confidence [that what] we set out to do five years back, we are executing on our mission, so it’s been an amazing journey and we want to keep expanding that business,” Wang said.
“The most important thing is we want to invest more into research-and-development to make it easier for our customers and [make] a better proposition for our TV sets.”
The executive from early on understood the power of connectivity. In the late ’90s, he invested roughly $20 million into a smart TV—a 36-inch, glass tube, low-resolution TV.
“I put in electronics and software into that TV so people [could] actually browse the web. I was in Santa Ana at the time,” Wang recalled.
He set the device so that when a user flipped to Channel 1, they were taken to his homepage. Without a brand, followers, distribution team or fast internet connectivity, the idea didn’t take.
“I was way ahead of the time. I failed. I lost a lot of money and I failed,” Wang said.
Fast forward a few years and everything changed for Vizio when Wang and team launched the first high-definition television for $1,999 at Costco, undercutting competing brands priced at around $10,000.
Vizio only grew from there.
Around 2008 is when the Vizio TV got even smarter with connectivity. Two years later it launched with Netflix and YouTube. Now, Wang and Vizio are ready for the next big thing in TVs.
“I’m so proud to be an Orange County-based company and to be listed on a U.S. stock exchange,” he said. “Today is a milestone for Vizio, but it’s only the beginning of a new chapter at Vizio.”
