Vivint, Inc. (formerly known as APX Alarm Security Solutions Inc.) is a private smart home services provider in the United States and Canada. In 2012, The Blackstone Group acquired Vivint for more than $2 billion. As of August 2016, Vivint had more than one million customers in the U.S. and Canada. Vivint is listed on the Forbes list of "America's Best Employers" and was also named one of Forbes' "Most Promising Companies" in 2013.
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History
In 1999, Keith Nellesen and Todd Pedersen co-founded APX Alarm Security Solutions in Provo, Utah. At the time, the company sold and installed security systems. Vivint began retaining customers in 2006 after it became a home monitoring provider. The company expanded its service to Canada that year after signing a $75 million credit facility agreement with Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs and APX Alarm completed another credit facility agreement worth $440 million in 2009. That November, the company acquired a central alarm monitoring station from Criticom Monitoring Services, a subsidiary of Protection One, in St. Paul, Minnesota. APX Alarm opened a new corporate headquarters in Provo, Utah a month later.
APX Alarm Security Solutions rebranded as Vivint in February 2011. The company completed a $565 million senior debt financing led by Goldman Sachs that month. Vivint also received funding from Peterson Partners and Jupiter Partners. The company launched Vivint Solar, a solar energy company, in 2011. The company partnered with Alarm.com early that year to deploy severe weather alerts to their customer base. Vivint was acquired by The Blackstone Group in September 2012. In 2013, Forbes ranked the company 46th in its annual ranking of "America's Most Promising Companies." Vivint acquired Smartrove, a wireless mesh networking technology provider, and began wireless broadband in August 2013. In October, Inc. named the company the second most job creating private company in the United States. In 2013, the company created the Vivint Fellows Program, a summer internship program at the Vivint Innovation Center.
Vivint acquired the cloud storage startup Space Monkey, a company founded by Clint Gordon-Carroll and Alen Peacock in 2014.
Vivint CEO Todd Pedersen appeared on the season finale of the CBS television show Undercover Boss in February 2015.
The company opened a new monitoring center in Eagan, Minnesota in August 2015.
On October 26, 2015, Vivint acquired the naming rights to the Utah Jazz's home arena, renaming the building as Vivint Smart Home Arena. The contract will last for 10 years.
Peter Thiel and Solamere Capital co-led a $100 million investment in Vivint in April 2016. Solamere strategic investors include Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman, Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy and former Walmart CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr..
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Products and services
Vivint launched its own cloud-based smart home solution, in June 2014. The system provides a centralized control, a smartphone application for remote access and learning algorithms that automatically pick up on a user's patterns. In 2014, the touchscreen Vivint SkyControl panel received a CE Pro BEST Award for "new custom electronic products introduced in 2014." In 2015, Vivint introduced the Vivint Doorbell Camera to its smart home solution. The product allows consumers to see, hear and speak with visitors on their doorstep from any mobile device. The product received a 2016 Electronic House Product of the Year award.
In January 2016, Vivint announced partnerships with Amazon and Nest. Vivint also announced Vivint Element, its own smart thermostat, and the Vivint Ping Camera, the first indoor camera with one-touch call out.
Vivint Solar
In 2011, Vivint Inc. launched a standalone company, Vivint Solar, as a solar electricity provider that designs, installs, and maintains residential photovoltaic systems. The company offers solar panels via a power purchase agreement (PPA). Vivint Solar owns, installs, and maintains solar panels on customers' homes in exchange for customers agreeing to purchase the solar energy their panels produce. Customers do not pay for installation, but pay for energy that the panels produce, for the life of the contracts. Vivint Solar is similar to other alternative solar companies like SolarCity, SunRun, and Sungevity. Its innovation in the field is the use of microinverters for each separate solar panel, allowing maximum production when some of the panels are in the shade.
In October 2014, Vivint Solar made its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol VSLR. In July 2015, SunEdison announced plans to purchase Vivint Solar for $2.2 billion. This deal subsequently fell through, and Vivint Solar has initiated suit against SunEdison for breach of contract, with SunEdison filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
Awards
- Forbes List of America's Best Employers: Vivint is one of 500 companies in the U.S. to make the inaugural Forbes list of "America's Best Employers." Vivint is also the top-ranked security and home automation company on the list and was named to Forbes list of "America's Most Promising Companies" in 2013.
- Vivint is the 2015 recipient of the Women's Choice Award for America's Best Home Security System.
- Best Contact Centers in the World: Vivint's Customer Solutions Manager Matt Hansen won the Silver award for "Best Use of Social Media in a Contact Center" from the Global Contact Center.
- The Stevie Awards selected Vivint as the Customer Service Department of the Year from more than 1,500 organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry.
- Vivint won a 2013 Inc. Hire Power Award from Inc. magazine, ranking at #2 on the publication's list of winners. Inc. Magazine also named Vivint the #1 job-creating company in consumer products and services and the #1 job creator in Utah.
- PCMag named Vivint Sky one of the Best Products of the Year in 2015.
- Consumers Digest rated Vivint a "Best Buy" in 2016.
- Vivint won two Gold Stevie Awards and two Silver Stevie Awards for Customer Service in 2016.
- Vivint Smart Home was the overall winner of the Business Intelligence Group's inaugural Best Places to Work award contest.
Philanthropy
The Vivint Gives Back focuses on helping children with intellectual disabilities through intelligent products and services. Vivint employees and owners contribute time, money, and volunteer hours to perform services for these children.
In 2012, Vivint Gives Back Foundation was named the "Corporate Volunteer Program of the Year."
In April 2015, Vivint employees worked with the Feed My Starving Children organization to donate $47,000 and assemble 217,000 meal kits to feed children in Haiti. Vivint has donated a total of 800,000 meals, enough to feed more than 2,000 children for an entire year.
In 2015, Vivint became the official safety sponsor for Autism Speaks, the nation's largest autism organization.
Vivint employees volunteer time and money to renovate homes for families who have children with intellectual disabilities. Employees install Vivint smart home technology in the homes and sensory rooms with developmental components such as swings, rock-climbing walls, reading nooks and art stations. Since its creation in 2008, Vivint Gives Back has donated $9 million and more than 150,000 service hours.
In February 2014, the company donated $2 million to the Utah Valley University to establish a professional sales program, as well as a SMART Lab for marketing research.
Legal issues
From 2009 through 2012 the company settled with the states of Arkansas, Oregon, Wisconsin and Contra Costa County, California and agreed to conform its contracts to refrain from certain sales practices.
In 2013, the company settled for $55,000 with the Kansas Attorney General, which accused sales agents of using deceptive practices while going door-to-door offering to install or replace home security systems. The agents also allegedly failed to advise the consumers of their rights under the Kansas Consumer Protection Act and did not disclose all costs associated with switching alarm system providers.
The Ohio Attorney General settled with Vivint in 2013 following complaints alleging deceptive sales practices and the company's refusal to honor cancellation notices. Vivint agreed to comply with Ohio consumer laws and paid $50,000 in fines. Also in 2013, Vivint agreed to an assurance of voluntary compliance in Nebraska. The company promised not to make any misrepresentations while engaging in sales. The company also donated $50,000 to two charities in Lancaster County, Nebraska.
As of 2014, two federal class-action lawsuits were filed against Vivint for alleged violations of the TCPA. In June 2014, Vivint agreed to a proposed settlement in Benzion which included a $6 million settlement fund.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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