Fox Corp is buying Roku in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $22 billion in a ⁠bet that pairing its sports and news programming with a top TV streaming ​platform will strengthen ​its position as ​audiences shift online.
The deal, announced on Monday, gives the cable TV-reliant Fox direct access to Roku’s large installed base of more than 100 ⁠million ‌streaming households, helping it better sell targeted ads ⁠and reduce reliance on traditional distribution.
Fox will acquire Roku for $160 per share, representing a premium of 11.4% to Roku’s last close.
Shares of Fox were ‌down 8% in premarket trade, while Roku’s shares were halted.
Roku is one of the first companies to bring ​streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube to television through connected devices and smart TVs.
Its business is largely driven by advertising and subscription revenue from streaming apps on its ⁠platform. Advertising is the largest component, with revenue of $613 million in the first ‌quarter, up 27% year-on-year.
Fox already operates Tubi, ‌while Roku runs The Roku Channel, and a combination of the two platforms could create a clear leader in streaming, with a meaningful ⁠share of total TV viewing, JP Morgan analysts said on Sunday.
Reuters ⁠reported on Friday that Roku is exploring ⁠its strategic options, including a full sale of the firm, amid interest from companies seeking access to its vast ​streaming audience and advertising platform.
The ‌combined company will become the third-largest player in U.S. television by share of viewing, the companies said.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of calendar year 2027.
Upon closing, existing Fox shareholders ​are expected to own about 73% ‌of the combined company and Roku shareholders about 27%.

Shares of Chinese AI model maker Zhipu surged after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised the stock’s price target and picked it as a winner against close rival MiniMax.
Zhipu, which trades as Knowledge Atlas Technology JSC, jumped 33% on Monday, one of its biggest surges since a successful initial public offering in Hong Kong to kick off the year. Alongside MiniMax, whose market debut came a day after Zhipu in January, the company is at the forefront of a wave of Chinese startups developing artificial intelligence tools to rival the best from the US.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Starbucks’ South Korean operation said Monday it will close all of its stores nationwide early on June 22 for mandatory history and social sensitivity training as it reels from backlash following a marketing campaign that was widely perceived as mocking victims of a brutal military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1980.
Shinsegae Group, which owns a 67.5% stake in Starbucks Korea, said group executives and employees at Starbucks Korea’s headquarters will attend training led by history and sociology professors on Wednesday. All Starbucks stores nationwide will close at 3 p.m. next Monday so employees can watch a recording of the session, Shinsegae said in a statement.
The coffee chain triggered an uproar when it attempted to promote a series of stainless-steel tumblers it called “SS Tank” by declaring May 18 to be “Tank Day.” The date marks the anniversary of the 1980 pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Gwangju. It was violently suppressed by Seoul’s military government at the time, which deployed troops, tanks and helicopters, leaving hundreds dead or injured.
The campaign further fueled outrage by using the slogan “Thwack it on the table!” which many read as a reference to a notorious 1987 police statement that attempted to cover up the torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. Authorities had falsely said Park died after investigators “hit the desk with a thwack.”
With the promotion sparking immediate backlash, Shinsegae canceled it within hours and fired the chief executive of Starbucks Korea. Shinsegae Chairman Chung Yong-jin later issued a nationally televised apology as police opened an investigation following complaints from relatives of the victims of the Gwangju crackdown. Chung will undergo separate training with the chief executives of Shinsegae affiliates on June 24.
Shinsegae said the decision to close all Starbucks stores early for the first time since the chain’s 1999 launch in South Korea and require companywide training shows “how seriously it views the marketing controversy and its determination to prevent a recurrence.”
The crackdown in Gwangju came months after General Chun Doo-hwan seized power in a coup in late 1979. Government records show about 200 people died in Gwangju, but activists say the true death toll was much higher. Chun’s government also imprisoned tens of thousands, saying it was rooting out social evils.
Public anger over Chun’s dictatorship led to massive nationwide protests in 1987, forcing him to accept a constitutional revision introducing direct presidential elections, which is widely seen as the start of South Korea’s transition to democracy.

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s massive space-exploration-slash-AI company, went public last week in a record-breaking IPO. But even if you’re not buying yet, you could still see the company’s stock in your 401(k) soon via a number of avenues.
And if you’re on the other side and want to avoid shares of the company that made Musk the world’s first trillionaire, there are things you should look out for, including potential funds to avoid.
As a publicly traded company, SpaceX is eligible to be included in some benchmark stock market indexes if it meets certain criteria. Many funds commonly held in 401(k)s and other accounts track different indexes. As a result, when SpaceX gets into some of those indexes, funds you already own might buy the shares as well.
That could happen in as little as a few days or weeks.
In May, the Nasdaq adjusted its rules to allow for the faster inclusion of mega IPOs like SpaceX into the Nasdaq 100, shortening the window to 15 days from three months before eligibility for inclusion.
FTSE Russell, another index provider, also adjusted its rules for quicker inclusion. SpaceX could be eligible to be included in indexes offered by CRSP, another benchmark provider, after five trading days.
However, S&P Dow Jones Indices, which manages the S&P 500, said on June 4 it wouldn’t follow suit for its benchmark index. That means SpaceX won’t be eligible to be included in the popular S&P 500 for at least a year. Tesla (TSLA), for comparison, went public in 2010 and did not join the S&P 500 until 2020.
But don’t expect exposure through index funds to boost or hurt your account just yet.
SpaceX’s weight in indexes is set to be based on the number of shares made public. The company went public with less than 5% of its shares immediately available, meaning its weight in indexes would be relatively small to begin with.
Because there’s only a limited number of SpaceX shares available, “the stock’s performance shouldn’t meaningfully affect the direction of major indices that hold it,” said Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments.
SpaceX’s $2 trillion valuation puts it in the top 10 largest publicly traded US companies. Despite the enormous headline numbers, its weighting in benchmark indexes like the Vanguard Total Market Index will start much smaller, according to Rodney Comegys, CIO at Vanguard Capital Management.
“No matter which index we’re talking about, the mega IPOs will enter the benchmarks as relatively modest weights,” Comegys said.
SpaceX exposure in other portfolios
While SpaceX will be fast-tracked into some indexes that are popular choices in retirement accounts, there are also other methods for getting access in standard brokerage accounts.
There are also a number of new exchange-traded funds that are planning to launch to build on the hype around the SpaceX IPO. Those could give more weight to SpaceX.
There are 21 ETFs related to SpaceX that have filed for listing, noted Kaush Amin, head of private market investments at US Bank Asset Management.
ProShares has filed to launch an Ultra SpaceX ETF, targeting double the daily returns of the company’s shares. That means double the gains on a day in the green, but double the losses on a day in the red.
The ETFs targeting double SpaceX’s returns, “speaks to the ‘meme stock’ hype around the name,” Amin said.
Keeping it simple
Investors who hope to limit exposure to SpaceX are best off just sticking to basic investing principles and ignoring the single-stock volatility, experts told CNN.
“Broadly diversify, never worry about one company, own the entire market,” said Comegys at Vanguard. “Keep your costs low, diversify and invest for a long period of time.”
The S&P 500, one of the most popular choices for passive investors, won’t have exposure to SpaceX for at least a year.
And of course, if you want specific exposure to SpaceX, you can also do things the old-fashioned way — by buying and selling shares of SpaceX directly.

Sugar Grove, North Carolina — Year after year, Ross and Rebecca Tobiassen saw their healthcare costs rise, having relied on the Affordable Care Act for federally subsidized health insurance since its start in 2014. Year after year, the couple in western North Carolina kept their coverage, believing the peace of mind was worth the cost.
But in December, that changed. The Tobiassens decided to cancel their insurance when Rebecca saw the cost of their monthly premiums would jump from $130 to more than $550.
“It makes no sense,” she said. “It’s not worth it anymore.”
The couple own and are the only employees of a small auto shop just west of Appalachian State University in the North Carolina mountains. Rebecca worries about her husband, whose work as a mechanic can be dangerous. A spring once shot a metal ball joint into their garage wall like a gun. A heavy object crushed Ross’ thumb. In 2020, Ross became mostly blind in one eye after repeatedly getting metal shards in it and developing an infection in his cornea.
The Tobiassens are among the Americans who canceled their ACA coverage after Congress allowed enhanced tax credits that helped pay for insurance plans to expire at the end of 2025. The Tobiassens benefited from those tax credits — like millions of other enrollees expected to drop or be dropped from their coverage as the year progresses, unable to keep up with the higher costs.
Established by the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act during the COVID pandemic, the expanded subsidies reduced monthly premiums for many families and prompted a tidal wave of new signups, doubling ACA enrollment to about 24 million.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is expected to soon release complete data on how many people are no longer covered under the ACA, but an early analysis from KFF, citing Wakely Consulting Group research, showed enrollment could drop from over 22 million at the end of 2025 to as low as 16.5 million in 2026.
In North Carolina, individual ACA signups for 2026 were down 22% compared with the year before, a greater drop than any other state, amounting to a decrease of more than 213,000 people, according to enrollment data. While the Tobiassens’ two teenage daughters remain on Medicaid, Rebecca said the new prices showed that the federal government doesn’t care about families like hers.
“We’ve known that you don’t care about us,” she said, “but you’re making it plain and simple now.”
The couple’s insurance hadn’t helped them cover all their medical needs. When the pain from Ross’ eye infection worsened five years ago, Rebecca insisted he go to a specialist, who told them that fixing the eye through cornea replacement surgery would cost them up to $30,000 and require Ross to take six months off.
Ross chose a less expensive treatment to kill nerves in the eye instead.
The couple know they’re taking a risk by not being insured. If something were to happen, they could face an enormous medical bill.
Ross, 47, said the blindness in the one eye doesn’t significantly affect his job. He works long hours, sometimes into the night to keep up with demand.
“I try not to think about it too much,” he said. “I just work.”
Katie Alexander oversees volunteers for Pisgah Legal Services, a western North Carolina nonprofit that helps low-income people secure health insurance. Alexander has helped North Carolina and Tennessee residents try to get ACA marketplace plans since Obamacare’s launch. She said she’s never seen anything like this year.
Nearly 100 Pisgah clients, out of about 700 that Alexander’s team worked with during open enrollment, decided to drop insurance this year, and many others chose cheaper ACA plans with less coverage, Alexander said.
Alexander said the people who have dropped their coverage include Lyft and Uber drivers. They’re trying to start their own businesses. They are artists and people who can work only part-time, because they’re chronically ill. Some are unable to get insurance through their employers, or they make too much to be on Medicaid.
“Even for folks who don’t have chronic illnesses,” Alexander said, “there’s just this nagging at the back of your mind, kind of constantly, of: ‘Don’t get hurt. Don’t get sick. Because you can’t afford that.'”
ACA premiums and deductibles steadily increased for years starting in 2022, then spiked during the enrollment period for 2026 plans, according to data analyzed by KFF. The Tobiassens have seen every dip and rise in plan costs since 2014 when the plans launched. They joined immediately and paid about $30 a month, Rebecca Tobiassen said.
“You actually felt like you were benefiting,” she said.
But through the years as the marketplace became more expensive, the couple made concessions, switching at one point from a silver plan — historically the most popular — to a bronze. The plan mostly provided for the couple’s basic needs.
As they saw their deductibles and premiums rise over more than a decade, Rebecca feared the day would come when they could no longer afford even the cheapest plan.
“Plans are unaffordable, no matter how you cut it,” said Risha Gidwani, a healthcare policy researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. “It’s just who is shouldering the unaffordability.”
Gidwani and health economist Cheryl Damberg, in a study published earlier this year, found that most bronze plans, the cheapest ACA options for many, would be unaffordable without subsidies for the average person using the federal healthcare coverage.
Without subsidies, many families using these plans don’t make enough to afford premiums or deductibles, Gidwani’s research shows.
People who drop health insurance also change what’s known as the “risk pool,” Gidwani said, when a group of people share financial hazards.
If healthier people drop out of the risk pool, fewer people subsidize the people who get sick, Gidwani said. That means premiums for the people who get sick will increase again in the future, she added.
“That becomes what we call a death spiral,” Gidwani said.
Even if the subsidies hadn’t expired, taxpayers would have borne an estimated $350 billion burden over the next decade to cover them, Gidwani’s study noted.
After dropping coverage they’d relied on for 11 years, the Tobiassens have no plans to return to the ACA marketplace. They looked into alternative options through a faith-based healthcare organization but decided to go without.
For now, they don’t have a plan B. They’ve set aside some money for a medical emergency. And if their savings run out, Rebecca Tobiassen said, they have a couple of last resorts to lean on: credit cards or family members.
Are you struggling to afford your health insurance? Have you decided to forgo coverage? Click here to contact KFF Health News and share your story.