Roku To Lay Off 10% Of Staff & Launch Content Review – Deadline

Roku is laying off around 10% of staff as it “performs a strategic review of [its] content portfolio.”

The media company will be hit with a restructuring charge of around $45 million to $65 million following the redundancy process, which will hit around 300 staffers. The redundancies and charges should have concluded by the end of this year, Roku said.

Roku made the announcement via an SEC filing early this morning U.S. time, with the filing declaring adjusted revenue and EBITDA Q3 estimations of $835 million to $875 million for the former and negative $20 million to $40 million for the latter. In Q2, Roku revenue jumped to $847 million despite a difficult market, although it had an operating loss of $126 million.

Alongside the layoffs, the California-headquartered outfit is also “performing a strategic review of its content portfolio, reducing outside service expenses” and “consolidating office space utilization.”

Roku expects to record an impairment charge in a preliminary estimated range of $160 million to $200 million related to ceasing to use certain office facilities and an impairment charge in a preliminary estimated range of $55 million to $65 million related to removing select existing licensed and produced content from company-operated services on its TV streaming platform, it said.

Former Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier took over as President of Roku Media late last year, earning $53 million in the final three months of 2022.