Roku has out-executed larger companies and leaned on an unusual corporate culture to gain a $45 billion valuation. Roku batted away early acquisition offers and skepticism from Wall Street bankers to go public in 2017. Roku founder Anthony Wood is now spending much of his time thinking about the company’s content ambitions.
Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood doesn’t fit the image of your typical tech mogul. In person, he comes across as quiet and introverted. But judging by the company’s first earnings report in November, he’s a bona fide billionaire, controlling just over a quarter of outstanding common stock for a company whose share price more than tripled since its September IPO.
If Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is the star of the Internet video-streaming phenomenon, then Roku CEO Anthony Wood is the best supporting actor. Wood shares his views on the convergence of Internet video and television i
Amazon’s streaming-video device is anticipated later today, but Anthony Wood — inventor of the DVR and founder and CEO of Roku — already sees boxes and dongles as stepping stones to TV’s ultimate future.
Roku has long argued that bigger rivals end up helping Roku when they release streaming-video boxes. CEO Anthony Wood allows that Apple TV does result in lost money — for Apple.
A new $60 million investment from BSkyB, News Corp. and Hearst Corp.is earmarked for a push away from the streaming box and into services like promoting channels, the company’sCEO Anthony Wood says.
