Fox completes its $22 billion purchase of Roku, months early

Fox completed its acquisition of Roku on Friday. The deal brings the streaming company, founded in 2002, formally under Fox's ownership.

Fox says the combined company is now the third-largest television business in the US by viewership. That means by how many people watch.

Roku founder Anthony Wood put it this way: "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."

He added that Roku's teams will keep building as they always have, "now with the support and capabilities of Fox behind us."

What's next: Wood joins Fox's board of directors. Reports also say he will co-chair a new unit that brings together Tubi, Fox One and Roku.

When Fox announced the deal in June 2026, the companies said it would close in the first half of 2027. It closed about six months ahead of the earliest part of that window.

The reason is that US regulators moved faster than expected. About two months ago, the Justice Department sent both companies a "second request." That is a formal ask for more documents and data during an antitrust review. Antitrust review is the check regulators run to see whether a deal would hurt competition.

Earlier this month, reports said the deal was nearing US approval. Now it is done.

In real life Think of a second request like a teacher asking to see your homework again. It doesn't mean you failed. It means they want a closer look before they sign off.

Fox agreed to pay $160 a share, which values Roku at about $22 billion including its debt. That is called an enterprise value: the price of the whole business, not just its shares.

The payment is a mix of cash and Fox stock:

• Cash: $96 a share, roughly $14.2 billion in total.
• Stock: 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A stock for each Roku share.
• Ownership: after closing, Fox shareholders own about 73% of the combined company, and former Roku shareholders own about 27%.

Fox lined up $12 billion in bridge financing from Morgan Stanley to cover the cash part. A bridge loan is a short-term loan that holds things together until longer-term funding is in place.

Fox said its debt after the deal would be about 2.8 times its yearly earnings. Companies use that kind of ratio to show how heavy their debt is.

The big prize is reach. Roku gives Fox a direct line to more than 100 million streaming households, which are homes that watch TV over the internet.

Fox also gets Roku's platform. Roku makes the operating system for many smart TVs and streaming sticks. An operating system is the basic software that runs a device, like Windows on a computer. On a Roku TV, it is the menu you see before you open any app.

Roku also runs The Roku Channel, its own streaming service, and sells ads that appear on its platform.

Fox already owns Tubi, a free streaming service paid for by ads. Fox bought it in 2020, and it now has more than 100 million monthly users. Services like this are called FAST, short for free ad-supported streaming TV.

Fox also runs Fox One, its paid streaming service, and owns live sports, news and entertainment. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said the deal brings together "the most valuable live content portfolio in video consumption" with the platform "through which America watches it."

Because advertising follows the viewers, and viewers are moving to streaming. This kind of TV is called connected TV: a TV that is connected to the internet.

Fox says Roku's audience will help it aim ads better, strengthen its place in the fast-growing connected TV market, and rely less on traditional TV distribution. Traditional distribution means cable and satellite bundles.

Murdoch described it as the next step in a plan that began years ago. In 2019 Fox reoriented the company around live news and sports. In 2020 it bought Tubi. Now it owns a platform too.

The big picture: Fox now owns a show shelf, a store and the front door to the store. That is a powerful mix, and it is why this deal drew a closer look from regulators.

This is the question many viewers care about. If Fox owns Roku, will it push its own shows and shut out rivals?

Both companies pledged to keep Roku an open, partner-friendly platform. Murdoch pointed to relationships with competitors such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney. He noted that a platform business depends on those partners promoting it.

That is a promise, not a rule, so it is worth watching. For now, the apps on your Roku are the same ones you had yesterday.

If you want to see how crowded the TV-stick market already is, we covered another big player in Amazon's new Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Plus.

Here is the short timeline of the deal and the road to it:

• 2019: Fox reoriented the company around live news and sports.
• 2020: Fox acquired Tubi, its free streaming service.
• 2025: Fox launched Fox One, its paid direct-to-viewer streaming service.
• June 2026: Fox announced it would buy Roku for $160 a share. Both boards approved it unanimously.
• September 2026: the Justice Department sent both companies its second request.
• November 6, 2026: the deal closed.

At the announcement, Murdoch called the deal "a defining moment" for Fox. Wood described it as "an extraordinary opportunity to accelerate our vision, scale faster and innovate more aggressively."

Fox expects about $400 million a year in cost savings from combining the two companies. The deal papers call these "run-rate cost synergies." In plain words, that is money saved each year by sharing teams, tools and spending once two companies become one.

Fox also expects the deal to add to its free cash flow per share. Free cash flow is the cash left over after a company pays its bills and investments.

Companies often promise savings in a merger. Whether they show up is something you can only check after a year or two. For now it is Fox's own target.

• Your devices keep working: nothing in the announcement changes how current Roku TVs and sticks run.
• Expect more Fox and Tubi: with one owner, Tubi and Fox's content may show up more often in Roku menus. Fox has not announced details.
• Ads may get more targeted: Fox says Roku's audience will help it improve ad targeting.
• Rival apps are meant to stay: both companies say Roku will remain open to partners such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney.