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Fox Corp is buying streaming platform Roku in a $22 billion cash-and-stock deal.
The deets: the acquisition gives Fox access to Roku's 100+ million streaming households, helping it reach a much larger online audience instead of relying mainly on cable TV.
Roku shareholders will receive $96 in cash plus Fox shares for each Roku share they own, valuing the deal at $22 billion.
The offer is also a 33.7% premium to Roku's share price before reports of a possible sale surfaced.
What the two bring: the deal brings together two very different businesses. Roku is a platform where people watch streaming apps like Netflix, Paramount and NBCUniversal.
Fox, on the other hand, makes sports and news content that it sells to TV and streaming services, including some that compete with Roku.
In short, Fox will now own a platform that also hosts content from its rivals, but it believes reaching Roku's massive audience is worth it.
Why this matters: the deal also comes as advertisers increasingly shift budgets to streaming, with streaming ad spending expected to reach $20 billion by 2029.
Once the deal closes, the combined company is expected to become the third-largest TV viewing platform, behind only YouTube and Disney, giving Fox greater scale to compete for viewers and advertising revenue.
Wall Street Journal
