Vizio Finally Makes its Wall Street Debut and Falls 9%
It has been 14 years since Vizio entered the television market but finally the company has made it to Wall Street.
The company began trading on the NYSE on Thursday under the ticker symbol “VZIO* but slumped 9% on its opening day.
Vizio, who sells high-definition TVs, previously filed to go public in 2015 but withdrew after agreeing to an acquisition. That acquisition eventually fell apart.
The company was founded by Taiwanese immigrant William Wang in Southern California back in 2002. In just five years it had become a leader in the flat-panel TV market by selling its devices for hundreds of dollars less than those of its rivals. It had also forged deals with big-box retailers such as Costco and Best Buy.
The company today however sees most of its growth is in its streaming business, driven by advertising, and not televisions. Vizio rivals against Roku, Amazon and Google in the fast-growing streaming market.
The company closed at $19.10 per share on Thursday after opening at $17.50 a share. The company had priced 12.25 million shares at $21 apiece,which was the low end of its range.
This valued the company at about $3.9 billion.
Vizio’s streaming business “Platform+,” saw growth of 133% last year to $147.2 million. Streaming accounted for just 7.2% of total revenue.
Streaming comes with software margins that made up 38% of gross profit which helped Vizio to quadruple its net income for the year to $102.5 million.
“Home entertainment is more critical than ever,” Wang said on CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” on Thursday morning before shares started trading.
“We’re very unique because we focus on hardware and software,” Wang said in an interview after ringing the bell at the NYSE. “In my opinion, someone has to put everything together.”
Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.