Wood eventually spun that unit out to a separate company called BrightSign. Next, he added digital signs - common in sporting event concession areas and even used by CNBC for background monitors. "I was a little early on that one," Wood acknowledged. Wood then added streaming audio devices to compete against Apple iPods. (SonicBlue has since gone out of business.) Wood initially funded Roku himself with money he had earned from selling other businesses, including DVR maker ReplayTV, which digital audio device maker SonicBlue bought for $120 million. Wood, who graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in electrical engineering, founded Roku in 2002 as a maker of high definition video players. Just as Netflix began as a DVD rental company, Roku's first attempts at business bear little relationship to how it makes money today. And both have unusual corporate cultures that can alienate employees who say they live in fear of being fired. Both pivoted their businesses to adapt for streaming video. Both companies could have been acquired in their early days for a fraction of what they're worth today. "But I only worked there nine months."īut Roku and Netflix have become market-leading companies worth tens of billions of dollars by out-competing media and technology giants. "My relationship to Netflix was obviously very important to Roku," he said in an interview. While it's not a carbon copy of its parent, Roku took more than just hardware from Netflix - it took a strand of its corporate DNA. To call Roku the offspring of Netflix is literally and figuratively true. "Obviously in hindsight, we missed a fortune," said Hastings. Wood, who owned more than 28% of Roku at its initial public offering but now owns less than 15% of shares outstanding after various sales through the years, has an estimated net worth of about $7 billion. Today, Roku's market capitalization is more than $45 billion. Shares have have gained more than 480% from March 17, 2020, as the media world shifted to focus on streaming video.
Roku has been one of the pandemic's big winners. If Netflix had held, its stake would be worth nearly $7 billion today. When Netflix sold its stock in 2009, it claimed a $1.7 million gain on a $6 million investment. Netflix would later sell its Roku shares to venture capital firm Menlo Ventures to avoid the perception of being conflicted by favoring one streaming distribution manufacturer over another. In return, Netflix received about 15% of Roku's equity. Wood received an unfinished device, patents, 20 to 30 Netflix employees (more than doubling the size of Roku) and some cash. So Hastings decided to spin out the division to Roku. Moreover, people surveyed in focus groups said they wanted a box that could stream more than just Netflix. Those companies felt Netflix's hardware posed a threat to their own businesses. Hastings wanted Netflix to be available on all sorts of streaming devices, such as Microsoft's Xbox, Sony's PlayStation, and Apple TV. So the two struck a deal - Wood took a part-time job at Netflix to make the device while remaining CEO of Roku, which had about 15 employees. Hastings at the time wanted to build the box in-house at Netflix. After first meeting at a conference, Roku CEO and founder Anthony Wood pestered Hastings for months to let his company make a streaming video box for Netflix.
0 kommentar(er)
