Fox Confirms Foreign Approvals for Roku Deal as U.S. Justice Department Review Continues
Key Facts
Fox confirmed that Fox and Roku had received the required shareholder and foreign regulatory approvals, while continuing to work with the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain approval under the HSR Act, according to the company’s earnings call transcript published by Investing.com. The update puts the foreign approvals in context: they are complete, but the U.S. review process is still ongoing. Fox said in an earlier filing that the companies received a second request for information and documents from the department on September 8, 2026, as part of its review of the deal. Meeting antitrust and investment review requirements therefore remains a condition of completing the acquisition. The companies expect to close in the first half of calendar year 2027, subject to the satisfaction or waiver of the closing conditions.
The deal combines cash and stock consideration for Roku shareholders. Under the statement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, each Roku shareholder at closing will receive $96 in cash and 0.9693 shares of Fox Class A stock. The filing said the stock exchange ratio is fixed and will be adjusted only in limited circumstances specified in the agreement. The consideration thus includes a specified cash component and a component tied to Fox shares, with the exchange ratio known in advance. Fox describes the transaction as an acquisition of Roku, while its filings make completion conditional on meeting regulatory and procedural requirements.
The companies received the Department of Justice’s second request for information on September 8, 2026, according to Fox’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing said additional information requests from the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice may lead to a second 30-day waiting period, which begins only after the companies have substantially complied with the request. The period may be terminated early or extended by agreement between the parties. The process means that completing information gathering and responding to the requests form part of the approval path, before the required waiting period expires or is terminated early. The agreement also requires other approvals under antitrust and investment review laws.
Roku shares closed at $155.12 on October 30, 2026, according to EL7 data. No figures for the stock’s intraday movement are available among the documented facts here, so the closing price is the only figure that can be attributed to that day. Earlier developments in October saw the deal spread narrow to $2.06 on October 21, from $3.37 in the previous session, after a report said the Justice Department could soon approve the deal. The spread widened again to $2.11 on October 28, from $1.89 the previous day, after a report that some states, including New York, were examining the deal. The report said the investigation was not advanced and that the parties had not announced objections; those earlier moves alone do not establish the effect of the foreign approval update on the spread.
Fox says combining Roku’s streaming platform with its sports, news and entertainment content is intended to strengthen its position in the fastest-growing media sectors. The company presented the distribution platform and content library as part of the rationale for the deal during its earnings call. The completion of foreign approvals does not change the U.S. conditions that are still required, according to the available filings. Fox says it expects to complete the deal by the first half of calendar year 2027, subject to the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the HSR Act. That timing remains tied to completing the review and satisfying or waiving the closing conditions.