Fox Corp is buying Roku in a $22bn (£16bn) cash-and-stock deal, betting that pairing its sports and news programming with the leading TV streaming platform will secure its position as audiences abandon traditional cable. The offer of $160 per share – $96 in cash and about 0.97 Fox Class A shares – values Roku at $22bn and gives Fox access to more than 100m households that stream via Roku’s operating system, which runs on over a quarter of internet-connected devices in the US, according to research firm Park Associates.
Shares of Roku rose 2.6% to $147.50 in premarket trading, still below the offer price, while Fox shares fell 8%. The deal, announced on Monday, is Fox’s first major acquisition since Lachlan Murdoch cemented control over the media empire his father Rupert built, following a family settlement last year.
“Fox is buying Roku in a $22bn cash-and-stock deal to combine streaming with news and sport.”
“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 chief executive Lachlan 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.”
Roku was one of the first companies to bring streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime to mass audiences via smart TVs and connected devices. Its business is largely driven by advertising and subscription revenue from apps on its platform; advertising alone brought in $613m in the first quarter, up 27% year-on-year. Under the takeover, Roku’s own channel – which features original shows including The Reunion: Laguna Beach and Honest Renovations hosted by Jessica Alba and Lizzy Mathis – will combine with Fox’s free-to-watch streaming service Tubi, creating a rival to Netflix and Amazon as one of the biggest streaming services in the US.
Fox has long dominated cable TV with its sports lineup and top-rated Fox News, but its streaming presence was limited to Tubi at a time when cord-cutting accelerates. Buying Roku gives it more heft in ad-supported streaming. The combined company will become the third-largest player in US television by viewership, the companies said. “This gives Fox greater control over discovery, data and monetization at a time when TV viewing continues to shift away from traditional channels,” said Paolo Pescatore, an analyst at PP Foresight.
Fox shareholders will own roughly 73% of the combined company, with Roku investors holding the rest. The boards of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of calendar year 2027 and generate about $400m in annual cost savings. Fox plans to fund the cash portion through new debt and cash on hand.