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Roku IPO
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Roku skyrockets on opening day of trading 3 Hours Ago | 00:54
Roku jumped up 67% on its first day of trading as a public company, closing at $23.50 after opening at $15.78.
The entertainment technology company listed its $252 million IPO on the Nasdaq under the trading symbol ROKU.
The company priced its 18 million share offering at $14 per share on Wednesday, the high end of the expected range of between $12 per share and $14 per share.
Roku, which which makes most of its money from selling streaming video players, had $398.6 million in revenue last year, up 25 percent from $319.9 million in 2015. But the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company still loses money: It posted a net loss of $42.8 million in 2016, steeper than the $40.6 million the year before.
In addition to sales of Roku players and TVs, the company has been expanding its advertising business. It's hoping to grow the number of hours streamed by each user, and monetize the hours through advertising, according to its prospectus.
The IPO comes as more and more companies look to take a slice of the video-streaming market. Advertising giant Facebook has deepened its ambitions in video streaming, and Apple and Amazon debuted new high-definition streaming devices this month.
Hopefully it works out for the best. Roku is a company I've respected for a while and it would be sad to see them cave into investor pressures.
That said, I had no idea about their IPO until the day of.
That said, I had no idea about their IPO until the day of.
I wish them luck. I like(ed) my Roku, but it currently sits in a drawer. Doesn't offer me anything currently that other must-have items already plugged in, don't offer.
I do like their brand agnosticism, but feel at the end of the day, they are simply a hardware company going against deep pockets (apple, amazon, google, TiVo, and all smart TVs). They are an app platform and EVERYONE is currently in that game.
I think making money by hardware is limited and by advertising will be difficult. I heard today they may be looking into exclusive content development, but again, they are going against DEEP pocket competitors. 252M doesn't buy a lot of exclusive content.
Anywho...I like them, but fear for their survival. I bet a major TV maker snatches them up when they get in trouble. I kinda hope I'm wrong.
I do like their brand agnosticism, but feel at the end of the day, they are simply a hardware company going against deep pockets (apple, amazon, google, TiVo, and all smart TVs). They are an app platform and EVERYONE is currently in that game.
I think making money by hardware is limited and by advertising will be difficult. I heard today they may be looking into exclusive content development, but again, they are going against DEEP pocket competitors. 252M doesn't buy a lot of exclusive content.
Anywho...I like them, but fear for their survival. I bet a major TV maker snatches them up when they get in trouble. I kinda hope I'm wrong.
The Roku was decent. My Tivo replaced it's functionality. So, my Roku sits in a drawer as well. The lack of a keyboard remote killed my interest. As searching was a pain.
While they likely can't take on Apple or Google. They should try to take on Tivo. If they offered multi-room DVR, full feature remote control and CableCard with a much more reasonable channel guide service. Or better yet let me just get the guide data from Comcast and not have to pay $15 a month (per DVR). I'd switch out my Tivo in a heartbeat.
I know there are PCIe card solutions. I just want a friendly simple device I can setup for everyone to use.
While they likely can't take on Apple or Google. They should try to take on Tivo. If they offered multi-room DVR, full feature remote control and CableCard with a much more reasonable channel guide service. Or better yet let me just get the guide data from Comcast and not have to pay $15 a month (per DVR). I'd switch out my Tivo in a heartbeat.
I know there are PCIe card solutions. I just want a friendly simple device I can setup for everyone to use.