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Roku IPO Media

Roku is eyeing a public offering this year

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By Lisa Lacy, n/a

July 14, 2017 | 3 min read

Streaming media company Roku is getting ready to go public before the end of the year – and it might even file in the next few weeks.

Roku is reportedly getting ready to go public.

Roku is reportedly getting ready to go public.

That’s according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites “people familiar with the company’s plans”.

Roku declined comment.

The Wall Street Journal says Roku has hired Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Allen & Co. as underwriters and it is seeking a valuation of $1bn. However, the Wall Street Journal pointed to the lackluster debuts of both Blue Apron and Snapchat this year, which could indicate Roku might be somewhat optimistic with that figure.

The Wall Street Journal also says Roku will likely pitch itself as the future of television as consumers cut cords in increasing numbers and Roku itself has pivoted from generating revenue from hardware to more of an ad-based and revenue-sharing model for streaming services with content from players like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.

Earlier this week, Roku announced it had 15m monthly active accounts as of June 30 and had grown 43% from the same period in 2016. In addition, Roku said users streamed almost 7bn hours of content in the first half of 2017, which was up 61% over the same period last year.

“Roku is the No. 1 TV streaming platform in the United States as measured by total hours streamed,” said Roku chief executive Anthony Wood in a statement. “We are growing our active accounts by distributing our proprietary TV OS across a broad range of streaming devices with multiple price points and many new and highly rated Roku TV models from our TV brand partners.”

The release said Roku offers 5,000 streaming channels with access to 500,000 movies and TV episodes in the US.

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