For almost two decades, Roku has been the Little Streamer That Could. It started as a Netflix side project before spinning off into its own company and releasing its first streaming device in 2008. Roku has since become one of the largest streaming platforms in the world. While other major streamers have steadily raised prices and cracked down on password sharing, Roku has built its brand around affordability. Last summer, it launched Howdy, an ad-free streaming service with almost 10,000 hours of content for just $2.99 a month.
Earlier this week, Fox announced that it’s acquiring Roku in a $22 billion deal. The merger will combine Roku’s platform with Fox’s news, sports, and entertainment content, as well as its own streaming service Tubi. Fox will also get Roku’s user base of more than 100 million households, giving it the third-largest share of U.S. TV viewers, behind only YouTube and Netflix. The deal still needs approval from shareholders of both companies and US regulators, but if it goes through, it’s expected to close in the first half of 2027. Here’s more from Variety:
Fox Corp. is making a dramatic move to hitch its future to the streaming world, unveiling plans to buy Roku in a deal that values the streaming platform at $22 billion.
Fox announced Monday that it has agreed to acquire Roku for $160.00/share in a combination of cash and Fox Class A common stock, giving Roku an enterprise value of about $22 billion. The companies expect the deal to close in the first half of calendar year 2027.
The deal would combine Fox’s sports, news and entertainment content and the Tubi service with Roku’s connected TV platform, the Roku Channel, first-party data and direct relationship with more than 100 million global streaming households.
The companies said they are “committed to continuing to operate Roku as an open, partner-friendly platform” and to the continued “ubiquitous” distribution of Fox content. Fox Corp. said that Anthony Wood, Roku’s founder, chairman and CEO, will have an ongoing role at the combined company and will join the Fox board following the close of the transaction.
According to the companies, on a pro-forma basis, the combined company will become the third-largest player in U.S. TV by share of viewing.
Roku, founded in 2002, was one of the earliest players in the streaming-devices space — and it has remained independent since then, battling for market share against tech giants like Amazon, Google, Samsung and Apple. The company, after years of struggling to achieve profitability, reported its first full-year profit for 2025, with net income of $88.4 million on revenue of $4.74 billion (up 15% year over year).
As of the end of March, Roku had $1.65 billion in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet and no debt.
Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and CEO of Fox, called it “a defining moment” for his company. He noted that after the sale of 21st Century Fox assets to Disney, in 2019, Fox Corp. was left with broadcast and cable networks focused on live news and sports. In 2020, the company acquired free, ad-supported streaming platform Tubi for $440 million; Tubi now has more than 100 million monthly users.
“This is a defining moment for Fox, and a natural extension of the deliberate and focused strategy we have been executing for nearly a decade,” Murdoch said in a statement. The acquisition of Roku will bring together “the most valuable live content portfolio in video consumption with the preeminent streaming platform through which America watches it. This combination will transform the scope of our company into high-growth verticals and yield a step change in our overall growth profile.”
Murdoch continued, “Roku pioneered streaming TV and scaled it into a leading [connected TV] platform. Together, we intend to lead its next chapter.”
Wood said in a statement: “Over the past two decades, we’ve built Roku into the leading TV streaming platform, reaching more than 100 million households globally and reshaping how people discover and enjoy entertainment. I’m incredibly proud of what our team has built, and the combination with Fox is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers.”
According to Wood, Roku’s board of directors unanimously approved the sale to Fox Corp. “after concluding its strategic review process that this transaction offers a significant premium to Roku shareholders while also providing them with the opportunity to participate in the compelling future upside of the combined company. I couldn’t be more excited about what we’ll accomplish together.”
Fox Corp. (under its earlier incarnation as 21st Century Fox) had previously been an investor in Roku but sold its 5% stake in the company in 2020, when it bought Tubi.
Man, this news is such a bummer. Fox and Roku can swear all day long that nothing is going to change, but consumers have seen this episode before, and we never like how it ends. It will be just like when Disney bought Hulu and slowly integrated both apps and subscriptions. Paramount is about to do the same thing with HBO, as well. I don’t think things will change overnight. I give it two years before Howdy becomes $9.99 a month with ads and $12.99 without. Fox is likely going to push their own content to be front and center, which will bury other streaming services further down on Roku’s home screen. I can’t imagine other streaming companies will be happy about that.
Photos via Roku Press and Getty Images
Guess we all had better rewatch the Weird Al movie while we can.
Ok. Got to make popcorn. 😿🍿
Monopolies are alive and well.. all these mergers are getting crazy.. I’m just waiting for the crash because history shows it’s coming.. also I just threw my Roku box in the trash.
Dammit! We have a Roku TV which we have been delighted with. 😡
Ditto. We are now on countdown to disaster.
This may shock everyone here but…….I’ve never bought into any streaming service and I never will. None of the shows people seem to adore and talk about endlessly don’t interest me. I’ll just watch my own movie collection that I accumulated over the years.