Business 3 min read By Lauren Baxter
Fox Completes $22 Billion Roku Acquisition Earlier Than Expected
Fox Corp. completed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku, although the deal had been expected to close around 2027. At the same time, the company announced the departure of executives from Tubi and Roku Media and formed a new team for its digital platforms.
Fox Corp. completed the acquisition of Roku for $22 billion, and did so earlier than expected. The deal had previously been expected to close around 2027. The company announced the completion on Friday after the close of trading on the exchange. Along with this, Fox announced changes in leadership affecting Tubi and Roku.
Tubi CEO Anjali Sud will not join Fox. Likewise, Roku Media President Charlie Collier will not move into the new structure. Collier led Roku's advertising and platform business for four years, so his departure concerns one of the company's key areas of activity. Both departures were announced together with broader organizational changes that Fox is introducing after the deal closes.
Instead of the former leadership, Fox formed a new team for digital projects. Paul Chisbro was appointed co-chairman and CEO of Fox Digital Platforms. Roku founder Anthony Wood became co-chairman of the same division and will also join Fox's board of directors. The new division will unite Roku and the media company's other digital operations, so it will be responsible for developing these areas within Fox.
Chisbro is a former software engineer who previously worked on Fox's digital initiatives. His expanded powers are directly tied to the integration of Roku into the company's structure. In other words, the new position not only formally unites the digital assets but also gives him the task of practically combining the two platforms.
Fox emphasizes that Roku will remain an open ecosystem. This is an important assurance for partners, advertisers and device makers who integrate the platform into their products. The company did not specify how this commitment will work in practice, but it is the main guarantee for external market participants.
At the same time, some questions remain unanswered. It is unclear how Tubi will be run without Sud at the helm, and it is one of the largest free streaming services within Fox's sphere of interest. It is also not defined what roles will remain for Roku's other executives besides Collier. Fox has not yet specified further personnel decisions, so the situation around both digital services will likely continue to change over time.
Closing the deal two years earlier than originally expected means Fox gained control of the platform much faster than planned. The coming months will show how smoothly the integration proceeds and whether the strategic goals stated when the deal was signed will be preserved.
Source: deadline.com
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