Vivint, Amazon Ring Rival, Sees Legal Chief Exit After SPAC Deal

Vivint Smart Home Inc., a home automation company, will part ways later this summer with chief legal officer and corporate secretary Shawn Lindquist.

Lindquist will step down Aug. 31, according to a June 16 securities filing.

Vivint went public last year through a merger with Mosaic Acquisition corp., a special purpose acquisition company. Lindquist received a $1.2 million bonus in January for the completion of that deal, according to a proxy statement.

Vivint’s products include smart video doorbells, a technology that makes the company a competitor to Amazon.com Inc.’s Ring LLC.

Lindquist, who didn’t respond to a request for comment about his departure, has spent the past five years as Vivint’s legal chief.

CEO David Bywater said in an internal announcement obtained by Bloomberg Law that Lindquist is leaving to “pursue other opportunities outside of the smart home industry.” He said Lindquist will be an adviser to Vivint for 12 months after his exit.

Vivint is conducting a search for Lindquist’s replacement, Bywater said.

Vivint’s proxy shows that Lindquist had a nearly $17.5 million pay package in 2020, with about $15.2 million of that sum comprised of stock and options awards. Lindquist earned $2.1 million in cash, including a $1 million bonus. He currently owns more than $2 million in Vivint stock, per Bloomberg data.

Vivint disclosed that Lindquist is eligible for more than $3 million in lump sum payments as part of a transition and consulting services agreement he has with the Provo, Utah-based company.

Bywater assumed his new CEO role June 15, replacing longtime leader and Vivint founder Todd Pedersen, who remains a member of the company’s board.

Shared History

Bywater joined Vivint after serving as CEO of Vivint Solar Inc., a Lehi, Utah-based solar electricity provider formed by Vivint in 2011 as a standalone company.

Vivint was sold for $2 billion to buyout giant The Blackstone Group LP in 2012. Vivint Solar then went public in 2014, raising more than $1 billion for Blackstone in its stock market debut. Blackstone sought to sell Vivint Solar to SunEdison Inc. for $2.2 billion in 2015, but the deal collapsed the following year.

Blackstone eventually found a buyer for Vivint Solar in San Francisco-based Sunrun Inc., America’s largest residential solar company, which last year agreed to absorb Vivint Solar in a nearly $1.5 billion deal.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati represented Vivint Solar on its sale to Sunrun, advised by Cooley and Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider. Simpson Thacher also counseled Vivint on the merger with Mosaic, advised by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which took Vivint public.

Both deals were followed last year by the filing of a lawsuit against Vivint Solar by former in-house lawyer Jim Lundberg, now a deputy general counsel at Vivint.

Lundberg claimed that Vivint Solar sought to invalidate and deny him vested stock options and restricted stock units he had in the company, according to a civil complaint filed in September in a federal court in Salt Lake City.

That case was voluntarily dismissed by Lundberg in February, but related litigation between him and Vivint Solar remains pending in state courts in Delaware and Utah.