Chinese tech firm LeEco made its biggest splash on American soil yet yesterday with the announcement that it's acquiring Vizio, the biggest US maker of TVs, for $2 billion. You might not be familiar with the name, but in LeEco's short history the ambitious company has achieved one of the fastest and most flamboyant rises to prominence so far in the Chinese tech space, going from streaming video site to aspiring self-driving car pioneer.
Although LeEco has had a whirlwind 18 months, its beginnings were much more humble. The Beijing-based company went public as Leshi Internet Information & Technology Corp in 2010, at which point it was focused on Letv, a Netflix-style video website founded by Jia Yueting and Hank Liu in November 2004. The...
