FOX Announces Deal to Acquire Roku For $22 Billion

Roku is set to be acquired by FOX in a deal valued at about $22 billion. FOX announced on Monday that it has reached a deal to acquire the streaming platform, adding it to Tubi among their free streaming services.

Roku hosts a fair amount of wrestling content, including a WWE NXT which streams on the Roku Channel the day after it airs. It has also previously hosted NJPW content has free wrestling through the likes of Wrestling Central.

The deal will see FOX acquire Roku for $160.00 per share in a combination of cash and FOX Class A common stock. The announcement notes:

“FOX and Roku are committed to continuing to operate Roku as an open, partner-friendly platform and to the continued ubiquitous distribution of FOX content. On a pro forma basis, the combined company will become the third-largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing, with an attractive mix of FOX’s sports, news, and entertainment content, alongside streaming services Tubi and The Roku Channel. That distribution and engagement scale spans every major viewing environment – broadcast, cable, local and streaming – creating broad and diversified reach that benefits viewers, partners and advertisers.”

The Roku Channel has over 100 million global streaming households, according to the announcement.

“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,” said FOX Corporation CEO Lachlan K. Murdoch. “In 2019, we reoriented the company around live news and sports. In 2020, we acquired Tubi and under our stewardship it has become one of the most successful businesses in streaming. Today, we take the next step: bringing 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. And we are executing this acquisition from a position of financial strength – maintaining our investment grade balance sheet while providing our shareholders with an uninterrupted return of capital program in the form of share buybacks and dividends. Roku pioneered streaming TV and scaled it into a leading CTV platform. Together, we intend to lead its next chapter.”