Surprise! Fox Corp. It has completed its acquisition of streaming platform Roku in a deal valued at $22 billion, it said Friday, well ahead of its expected 2027 date.
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood will join Fox’s board of directors. He will serve as co-president of Fox Digital Platforms, a newly created division that includes Roku, Tubi, Fox One, Red Seat Ventures and other digital products and services across the company, alongside Paul Cheesbrough, who assumes the role of co-chairman and CEO of the division.
“The completion of this acquisition advances Fox’s long-term strategy,” Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corp.’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement Friday.
Fox Corp. emphasized its commitment to maintaining Roku “as a leading open ecosystem for the broader streaming industry.” That means it won’t automatically be able to give exclusive or advantageous positioning to, for example, Fox News on Roku or the Fox One streaming package, which has a customer base of more than 100 million households.
The Roku deal will significantly increase Fox’s streaming footprint and provide the opportunity to scale up Fox’s free, ad-supported streaming footprint through Tubi and the Roku Channel. With Roku, Fox is now a much larger player in digital video advertising as well as a major distributor of premium subscription streaming services.
“Starting today, our top priority for the combined company is to continue to continuously serve audiences and partners while strengthening the openness and choice that are core to the Roku platform,” Murdoch said. “Our shared entrepreneurial passion and clear belief in building the future together with our new Roku colleagues gives us great confidence in the opportunities ahead.”
Fox Corp. has said it expects to achieve annual cost synergies of about $400 million within two years after the Roku deal closes, indicating layoffs are coming. Fox also said there is potential revenue growth from the combination of Roku’s businesses and that it anticipates the acquisition will add to free cash flow per share in the second full year after closing.
“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 has changed is our reach and resources. Fox has a deep respect for the Roku culture and fully shares our commitment to remaining open to every content partner. Now with Fox’s support and talent behind us, our teams will continue to evolve and innovate as they always have. I’m proud of what the Roku people have done and I’m excited for what’s to come next,” Wood said in a statement.
It falls squarely on Fox Corp. to maintain Roku’s arms dealer status as a front-end for ubiquitous streaming content and services, including Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, HBO Max and more.
Roku outperformed financial forecasts for the first nine months of 2026, delivering 23% revenue growth during the period, reaching $4.1 billion in sales. Approximately 49% of this came from advertising and 40% from subscriptions. In the third quarter, Roku’s total gross profit increased 24% to $649 million, and Roku generated net income of $183 million, a more than sevenfold increase from the previous quarter.
In June, Fox announced an agreement to acquire Roku for $160 per share, with a combination of approximately $14.2 billion in cash and the remainder in Fox Class A common stock. Shareholders of both companies approved the deal on October 14.