Fox Corporation now owns the operating system on a huge share of America's living-room TVs. The company said Friday it has completed its acquisition of Roku, a deal TechCrunch puts at $22 billion, and the speed of the close is the first surprise: when the deal was announced in June, the companies projected it would finish in the first half of 2027.

Under the terms in Fox's announcement, each Roku share converts into $95.30 in cash plus 0.9799 shares of Fox Class A stock. Former Roku holders end up with roughly 26 percent of the combined company, and Roku stopped trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. The Los Angeles Times notes the $22 billion figure includes debt.

## What Fox says it is building

Roku, Tubi, Fox One and Red Seat Ventures now sit in a new division called Fox Digital Platforms. Roku founder Anthony Wood joins Fox's board and becomes co-chair of that division alongside Paul Cheesbrough, who is also its CEO. Fox says the combined streaming business reaches more than 100 million households through Roku alone.

The financial promise is blunt: about $400 million in run-rate cost synergies within two years, and a deal that is accretive to free cash flow per share by the second full year. Fox also stresses that Roku will remain an open platform. "Our top priority for the combined company is to continue to relentlessly serve audiences and partners, while reinforcing the openness and choice that is the essence of the Roku platform," Executive Chair and CEO Lachlan Murdoch said.

## Why it matters

Roku's value has always come from being neutral: Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV and Fox's own rivals all sit on the same home screen. That neutrality is now owned by a company that sells its own streaming service, its own ad-supported channel and live sports. Fox has promised not to tilt the field, but promises are cheap and home-screen placement, search ranking and ad inventory are not.

The $400 million savings target is the other thing to watch. Cuts at that scale usually mean layoffs and consolidated ad-tech, which could shape how advertisers buy across Tubi and Roku. Regulators let the deal close early, so the real test is behavior, not paperwork: how Roku treats competing apps, and whether Fox content starts getting preferred treatment on the screens it now controls.

— via techcrunch