Vivint Smart Home Arena parent company merges with holding firm
Sep 16, 2019, 5:55 PM
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah-born Vivint Smart Home is merging with Softbank, a multinational holding firm out of Japan.
The change is expected to generate $700 million in new capital for the company. However, Vivint Founder and CEO Todd Pederson says the change in ownership won’t much affect the day-to-day activities of current employees.
“We’ve done this a long time,” Pederson told KSL NewsRadio. “We have a lot of employees and 1.5 million customers. And the entire management team is staying.
“So I would hope that from a cultural perspective, and opportunity perspective, nothing will change.”
Pederson says most of the $700 million in new capital will be used to pay down the company’s existing debt as well as free up resources to allow the company to evolve.
But that evolution doesn’t include leaving the state of Utah.
“We love being part of Utah, part of what’s going on here,” Pederson said. “It’s a great state to work in. We have an incredible employee base. And [there are] lots of great companies here.
We’re here to stay.”
If you’ve lived in Utah long enough, you know that the building named after Vivint (the Vivint Smart Home Arena) and home to the Utah Jazz has had several other names. It was the Delta Center from the time it opened in 1991 through 2006.
Then it was Energy Solutions Arena, from 2006 to 2015. Then it became Vivint Smart Home Arena. And Pederson says, that’s not going to change, either.
“It’ll remain the Vivint Smart Home Arena.”
