According to The Verge, LeEco has just announced that it no longer intends to buy US television maker Vizio.

LeEco announced its plans to buy Vizio last July for $2 billion. It's not the first stumble for the company - they're in the midst of major fundraising efforts after an apparent cash crunch caused by over-expansion. It's now rumored the company is looking to sell some of its Silicon Valley property holdings, as well.

LeEco cited "regulatory headwinds" as the reason for calling off the merger. It could also have been a little bit, maybe, that it just seemed like a bad idea and honestly made no sense from a product strategy perspective. LeEco manufacturers its own TVs with its own Android-based operating system for China, now sells Android TV-powered TVs in the US, and Vizio meanwhile has its own TV OS and ecosystem that in no way ever integrated with LeEco's products. In fact, LeEco and Vizio are competitors.

It may have seemed like an easy way to get a foot in the door of the US market, but Vizio is a respected and recognized brand here in America, and LeEco is a company very obviously in love with itself and its image - I don't see how they would have handled sharing the limelight with Vizio.

Anyway, Vizio fans are probably a bit relieved by the news, even if it's not exactly painting LeEco in a flattering light. LeEco and Vizio will maintain a semblance of a relationship, with Vizio preloading the Le app on its smart TVs, as well as beginning to launch products in China itself. Sources told Variety that executives at Vizio lost confidence in the deal "months ago."

Source: The Verge, Variety