Fox Is Buying Roku for $22 Billion. Here’s What It Means for Streaming

Fox has agreed to acquire Roku in a deal valued at approximately $22 billion US, combining Fox’s live sports and news content with Roku’s massive streaming platform.

Under the terms of the deal, Fox will pay $160 US per share, split between $96 in cash and the rest in Fox Class A common stock. Roku shareholders will end up owning about 27% of the combined company, with existing Fox shareholders holding the remaining 73%. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.

The combination brings together Fox’s sports and news lineup, including the NFL, MLB, NASCAR, FIFA World Cup and Fox News, with Roku’s platform which reaches over 100 million households globally, including more than half of all US broadband households. Tubi and The Roku Channel will both be part of the combined company, which Fox says will make it the third-largest player in US television by share of viewing. Both of those streaming services are also in Canada.

“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,” said Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, in a statement on Monday.

Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood, who will join the Fox board after the deal closes, said, “The combination with FOX is an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively for viewers, partners and advertisers.”

Fox says the deal should generate around $400 million USD in cost savings and expects it to boost free cash flow by the second full year after closing. To fund the cash portion of the deal, Fox has already lined up $12 billion USD in bridge financing through Morgan Stanley.