View, Inc. is an American glass systems manufacturer headquartered in Milpitas, California. It makes and sells smart glass systems based on electrochromism.
Video View, Inc.
History
The company was founded in April 2007 by Paul Nguyen as "eChromics". Based in Santa Rosa, California the company developed smart glass using electrochromism. It raised a Series A round of funding from Sigma Partners and Khosla Ventures, who later took over control of the company and received preferred shares. The company was renamed to "Soladigm" in October 2007, and appointed Rao Mulpuri as CEO in December 2008. Soladigm moved its headquarters to Milpitas, California after reconditioning a Seagate Technology factory. In January 2009 Nguyen was removed as CTO and was fired the next month.
Later that year, the company acquired a Seagate Technology factory with sputter deposition equipment. It was acquired prior to destruction under Mulpuri's leadership, and hired many of the employees who had worked their previously for Seagate. Soladigm then moved its headquarters to Milpitas, California.
In 2010, the company received a $3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The following year, the US Energy Department and researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) shared the results of their research into smart glass solutions, concluding that use of the technology can significantly reduce both energy consumption and costs based on studies of several companies' products, including Soladigm and Minnesota-based SAGE Electrochromics.
In February 2011, the company announced that it intended to start shipping its product out of the Mississippi factory in the first quarter of 2012. Soladigm changed its name to View, Inc. in November 2012, and began shipping to customers from its new factory in Olive Branch near the end of the third quarter of 2012.
Litigation
The company took a series of other actions against Nguyen's interests, which led Nguyen to file suit in January 2010. The parties agreed to arbitration, and in December 2015, the arbitrator ruled in Nguyen's favor. As of June 2017, additional litigation was still underway due to Nguyen's challenge to further actions taken by the company to restructure the company and its board.
Electrochromic technology has been discussed at least since the 1964 New York World's Fair but it took until the 1990s for any company to sell the first products using it.
One of the company's main competitors is Minnesota-based SAGE Electrochromics. In December 2012 Sage filed a patent infringement suit against View; View counter-sued a few months later.
Maps View, Inc.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of article : Wikipedia
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