Fox Corp. completed its roughly $22 billion acquisition of Roku Inc. on Friday, closing the cash-and-stock deal well ahead of the 2027 timetable many investors had expected and giving the broadcaster control of a streaming platform used in more than 100 million households.
Fox agreed in June to pay $160 a share for Roku, about $14.2 billion in cash with the rest in Fox Class A common stock. Shareholders of both companies approved the transaction on Oct. 14.
A new digital division
Roku founder and Chief Executive Anthony Wood joins Fox’s board and becomes co-chair of Fox Digital Platforms, a newly formed unit that houses Roku, the free streaming service Tubi, the Fox One subscription product, Red Seat Ventures and other digital businesses. Paul Cheesbrough, who has run Tubi, is co-chair and chief executive of the division.
Fox said it will keep Roku an open platform for other streaming services and won’t automatically favor its own programming. Combining the Roku Channel with Tubi gives the company far more scale in free, ad-supported streaming and makes it a larger seller of connected-TV advertising and a distributor of paid subscription services.
Savings targets
The company expects about $400 million of annual cost savings within two years of closing and said the deal should add to free cash flow per share by the second full year. Fox didn’t detail where the cuts would come from.
The early close is one of the largest media deals completed this year and removes a source of uncertainty for both companies as advertisers set budgets for 2027.
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