Chinese tech firm LeEco agrees to buy Vizio TV for 2B

MENLO PARK, Calif. — Chinese video streaming company LeEco is breaking into the U.S. TV market by buying Vizio, a manufacturer of budget-priced sets. The combination promises a marriage of hardware and content as tightly linked as your smartphone is to your monthly voice and data plan.

The $2 billion purchase announced Tuesday marks another ambitious foray by LeEco. The company’s chairman and CEO, billionaire Jia Yueting, is also behind Faraday Future, an electric car company building a massive plant near Las Vegas.

At an event in Los Angeles, Jia promised “disruptive pricing” reminiscent of how it bundles video subscriptions with smartphone and smart TV purchases in China. He also said the company would launch its U.S. presence in a few months with an event in Silicon Valley, where it has opened its U.S. headquarters in San Jose.

Vizio is based in Irvine, California, and has been the No. 2 TV brand in North America behind Samsung for the past seven years, according to research firm IHS Markit. Vizio will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary, and its brand will remain. Vizio founder and CEO William Wang will leave to run a spun-off data company called Inscape. The deal is to close by year’s end.