Fox Roku acquisition closing, Digi Mart USA News: Fox Corp. said Friday it has closed its acquisition of streaming platform Roku, a deal valued at $22 billion and completed well ahead of the expected 2027 date.
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood will join the Fox board of directors and serve as co-chair of Fox Digital Platforms, a newly formed division that includes Roku, Tubi, Fox One, Red Seat Ventures and other digital products and services across the company. Paul Cheesbrough will serve as co-chair and CEO of the division.
Fox Corp. emphasized its pledge to preserve Roku “as a leading open ecosystem for the broader streaming industry.” The company said this means it will not give exclusive or advantageous positioning to Fox News or the Fox One streaming package on Roku, which has more than 100 million households as customers.
The deal significantly expands Fox’s streaming footprint and gives it the opportunity to increase scale in the free, ad-supported streaming space through Tubi and the Roku Channel. With Roku, Fox becomes a much larger player in digital video advertising as well as a key distributor of premium subscription streaming services.
Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp., said in a statement that “the closing of this acquisition advances the long-term strategy of Fox.” He added that the company’s top priority is to “continue to relentlessly serve audiences and partners, while reinforcing the openness and choice that is the essence of the Roku platform.”
Fox Corp. said it expects to achieve approximately $400 million of annualized cost synergies within two years after the deal close.
The company also said there is potential revenue upside from combining Roku’s business with its own, and that the acquisition is expected to be accretive to free cash flow per share by the second full year after closing.
In a statement, Wood said Roku was started more than two decades ago to give people a better way to watch TV, and that mission does not change. He said Fox shares Roku’s commitment to staying open to every content partner.
In June, Fox announced the agreement to buy Roku for $160 per share, consisting of about $14.2 billion in cash and the remainder in Fox Class A common stock. Shareholders of both companies approved the deal on Oct. 14.
