Fox Closes $22 Billion Roku Acquisition, Forms Digital Platforms Unit

Fox Corp. closed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku on Nov. 6, 2026, months ahead of the originally projected first-half 2027 window, according to Fox's announcement and reports by Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, and TheWrap. Roku founder Anthony Wood joins the Fox board as co-chair of newly formed Fox Digital Platforms alongside Paul Cheesbrough, while the Justice Department cleared the deal with commitments that Roku remain an open, neutral platform.

Nov 07, 2026 - 13:13

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Fox Corp. closed its $22 billion acquisition of streaming platform Roku on Nov. 6, 2026, months ahead of the originally projected first-half 2027 window, according to a Fox Corporation press release and same-day reports by Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, and TheWrap. The closing came less than five months after Fox announced the agreement in June, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter reported. Roku shares ceased trading on the Nasdaq, Fox and TheWrap said.

Roku founder Anthony Wood will join the Fox board and serve as co-chair of Fox Digital Platforms, a newly formed division that includes Roku, Tubi, Fox One, Red Seat Ventures, and other digital products and services, according to the company release and matching accounts from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and TheWrap. Paul Cheesbrough assumes the role of co-chair and chief executive officer of that division. Fox Executive Chair and Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement published by Fox, Variety, and TheWrap that closing the acquisition "advances the long-term strategy of FOX" and that the top priority is to serve audiences and partners "while reinforcing the openness and choice that is the essence of the Roku platform."

Deal terms, timing, and financial targets

Under the merger terms in Fox's Nov. 6 release and TheWrap's report, Roku stockholders received $95.30 in cash and 0.9799 shares of Fox Class A common stock for each Roku Class A or Class B share owned immediately before closing. Fox stockholders own about 74% of Fox's outstanding shares and former Roku stockholders about 26%, Fox and TheWrap reported. Variety's Todd Spangler wrote that when Fox announced the agreement in June, the deal was framed at $160 per share in a mix of about $14.2 billion in cash and the remainder in Fox Class A stock, and that shareholders of both companies approved the transaction on Oct. 14.

Fox said it expects about $400 million of run-rate cost synergies within two years after closing, with additional potential revenue upside, and anticipates the deal will be accretive to free cash flow per share by the second full year after closing, according to the company release, Variety, and TheWrap. Variety noted the synergy target suggests layoffs could follow. In the first nine months of 2026, Roku delivered 23% revenue growth to $4.1 billion, with about 49% from advertising and 40% from subscriptions, Variety reported; third-quarter gross profit was $649 million, up 24%, and net income was $183 million, up more than seven-fold from a year earlier.

Fox Digital Platforms leadership and executive exits

Under a structure described in a Cheesbrough staff memo obtained by Variety and covered by The Hollywood Reporter, Roku will be led by Chief Executive Officer Mustafa Ozgen, formerly Roku's president of devices, products and technology. Direct-to-consumer properties including Tubi, Fox One, and Frndly TV will be led by Pete Distad; Red Seat Ventures by Chris Balfe; and Credible by Robert Humann, Variety's Brian Steinberg reported. Charlie Collier, president of Roku Media, and Tubi Chief Executive Officer Anjali Sud are departing; Sud will assist through a transition, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reported. Mike Bidgoli is being promoted to president of Tubi, reporting to Distad. Variety also cited exits by Chris Handman, Roku's general counsel, and Robyn Peterson of AdRise, and said Jeff Dow, Fox's executive vice president of platform and media technology, will retire at the end of the fiscal year. Melody Hildebrandt continues as Fox chief technology officer, and ad sales will report to Jeff Collins, Variety said.

Wood said in a statement published by Fox, Variety, and TheWrap: "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. FOX has a deep respect for Roku's culture and wholly shares our commitment to staying open to every content partner."

Justice Department clearance and open-platform commitments

The U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division cleared the transaction as "not likely to result in harm to competition," according to Deadline's Ted Johnson, The Hollywood Reporter's Winston Cho, and TheWrap's Lucas Manfredi, all writing Nov. 6. The Division said entry of free, ad-supported streaming providers would be "timely, likely, and sufficient to make a substantial risk of harm to competition unlikely," and that the merged firm would suffer monetary and reputational harm if it used the Roku platform to harm Fox's content rivals, those outlets reported. TheWrap noted the Department had issued a "second request" during its review.

Fox committed that Roku would remain an open and neutral content partner, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, and TheWrap reported. Commitments include carrying non-Fox content on Roku for at least three years; not discriminating against non-Fox content in search results; allowing users to reconfigure home-screen apps; providing data products to third parties on commercially reasonable terms; and maintaining firewalls for competitively sensitive non-Fox content data — including click, search, view, and voice data — for at least three years.

Streaming scale: Roku, Tubi, and Fox One

Roku reaches more than 100 million streaming households worldwide, according to Fox, Deadline, Variety, and TheWrap. Fox already owns Tubi, which reaches 110 million monthly active users, TheWrap reported. Together, Tubi and Roku accounted for 4.8% of streaming viewership in August — tying Disney's streaming share and trailing Netflix and YouTube — and with linear TV the combined company accounted for 8.5% of total TV viewership that month, ranking fourth behind YouTube, Skydance, and Disney, per Nielsen figures cited by TheWrap. Variety wrote that the deal expands Fox's free, ad-supported footprint through Tubi and the Roku Channel and its role in digital video advertising. Deadline noted that Fox One has done bundle deals with ESPN and aims to onboard more services. Across the Nov. 6 reports, the closing, leadership structure, synergy targets, merger consideration, and Justice Department commitments were described consistently.