Four of Orange County’s largest private companies weren’t expecting to stay private as of a few years ago and one of them didn’t expect to be OC-based, either.
But changing plans haven’t kept Vizio Inc., Advantage Solutions, LoanDepot and City Ventures from pushing ahead with new business lines and higher sales: the quartet combined for $9 billion in revenue last year, this week’s Business Journal list of OC’s largest private companies shows (see page 28).
Vizio Reinvents
Vizio, the Irvine-based smart TV maker that ranks No. 8 on the list, has seen its share of change since 2015, when it filed plans to go public to raise about $200 million.
The company was founded by William Wang in 2002 to compete with pricier products and reported $2.2 billion in revenue and a $44 million profit during the first nine months of 2015, the last time it reported earnings as part of the IPO process. Sales are now estimated at closer to $3.5 billion.
A public offering was shelved as the company caught the eye of a Chinese buyer, electronics maker LeEco, which in 2016 said it would buy Vizio for $2 billion.
Around that time, Vizio bought Inscape, an automatic content recognition and data tracking firm whose technology, when paired with the company’s TVs, can provide intelligence insights for advertisers and media content providers.
Wang was expected to keep a majority stake in Inscape once Vizio was sold but after the LeEco deal was abandoned in 2017, that business unit has become a core part of the Irvine company’s growth plans.
Vizio this year spearheaded Project OAR—Open Addressable Ready—to create and implement a new standard for delivering targeted ads to internet-connected TVs. Founding members of the group include Disney Media Networks, AT&T’s Xandr, and WarnerMedia’s Turner.
Technology will be included in Vizio’s TVs and could be installed on other manufacturers’ products down the line.
Wang said his industry is no longer about the TVs, but shows.
“If you look at the TV industry it’s really about great content for the consumer’s entertainment experience,” Wang told the Business Journal in April.
Greener City
City Ventures was one of four Orange County homebuilders that filed to go public in 2013 and 2014, and the only one of the four not to follow through.
The other three have since seen mixed results on Wall Street, especially over the last nine months amid questions of the health of the new home market.
City Ventures’ planned $150 million IPO was deemed “not in the best interests of the company,” it said in 2014. It had posted less than $100 million in sales during 2012, and $68 million in sales for the first six months of 2013, the last time it reported results with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In 2018, it reported $362 million in sales, slightly above year-ago levels. It’s No. 53 on the private company list.
Since its inception, the company has focused on infill housing; its growth the past few years as come as it has focused on building sustainable communities where homes are designed to reduce or eliminate utility bills.
Adding a do-good factor to the home-buying process adds oomph to the company’s business strategy, Phil Kerr, chief executive of homebuilding operations, told the Business Journal last year.
“People want to feel good about buying their homes,” he said. “We think this is the right way to build at this point.”
Private Market
Advantage Solutions, which provides marketing and technology services to consumer goods manufacturers and retailers, filed plans to go public in 2017, with a placeholder $100 million fund-raising disclosed.
It has yet to officially pull the plans, but hasn’t given an indication it still plans to go public in the near-term, either.
It hasn’t hurt sales; pro-forma revenue of about $1.7 billion in 2014, the last SEC-reported earnings, have since risen to $3.7 billion in 2018; it now ranks No. 7 among private companies by revenue.
A spokesperson said via email its 54% year-over-year increase last year was by both acquisition and organic growth in “core areas such as ecommerce … digital marketing, media, experiential and entertainment marketing” which “in turn field key new business wins in [related] industries such as auto, entertainment and travel.”
Loan Arranger
Foothill Ranch-based LoanDepot, No. 17, halted its 2015 initial public offering, deciding market conditions weren’t right. Founder and majority owner Anthony Hsieh a year ago told the Business Journal it’s “always” considering an IPO and that “one of these days, we’ll pull it off.”
He also said potential buyers are constantly making offers for the mortgage and personal loan provider, which began in 2010 and now has $1.3 billion in annual sales.
“We’re not ready to hang it up. We’re going to stay independent as long as we can.”
