Fox Corporation completed the Roku acquisition for about $22 billion on Friday, November 6, turning the broadcaster into one of the largest connected TV companies in the United States. The deal closed months ahead of schedule: when it was announced in June, completion was only expected in the first half of 2027.
Under the terms of the deal, each Roku shareholder received $95.30 in cash and 0.9799 shares of Fox Class A common stock per share held. As a result, Fox shareholders own about 74% of the combined company and former Roku shareholders about 26%. Roku shares have stopped trading on the Nasdaq.
A new digital division
Roku founder Anthony Wood joins Fox's board and will co-chair the new Fox Digital Platforms division, which brings together Roku, Tubi, Fox One and Red Seat Ventures, alongside Paul Cheesbrough, who will serve as co-chair and CEO of the division. According to Fox, the combined company is now the third-largest television business in the U.S. by viewership.
Antitrust review and open platform
Fox expects about $400 million in annualized run-rate cost synergies within two years and anticipates the deal will become accretive to free cash flow per share from the second full year after closing. The deal went through an antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice, which issued a second request for information in September and closed its investigation after concluding the merger was unlikely to substantially harm competition. As part of the clearance, Fox committed to keeping Roku an open and neutral platform for rival content for at least three years.
"We started Roku more than two decades ago to give people a better way to watch TV, and that mission doesn't change today. What does change is our reach and resources," Wood said in a statement.
Image credit: Roku/TechCrunch.
Sources: TechCrunch; Goodwin; Cord Cutters News.
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