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.
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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.
Under the terms of the deal, Fox will pay $96.00/share in cash (about $14.2 billion) and offer 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A common stock for each Roku Class A and Class B share outstanding. Upon closing, existing Fox shareholders are expected to own approximately 73% of the combined company and legacy Roku shareholders approximately 27%.
When the deal closes, Fox expects the combined company to have a pro-forma net leverage ratio of approximately 2.8x (net debt divided by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). Fox said that ratio is inclusive of “50% credit for run-rate cost synergies.”
Fox expects to fund the cash portion of the Roku deal with a combination of new debt and cash on hand. Fox said it has secured $12.0 billion of fully committed bridge financing from Morgan Stanley.
Fox said it expects the Roku deal to be accretive to free cash flow per share by the second full year after closing (meaning by 2029). The companies anticipate $400 million of annual run-rate cost synergies through Fox’s combination with Roku along with “additional revenue upside.”
From Variety US