Advanced Television

Roku seeks to raise cash

January 28, 2010

Roku, the television set-top box maker spun off by Netflix, is planning to raise $30 million in private funding this quarter and may sell shares to the public next year, Chief Executive Officer Anthony Wood said.

The company, which lets customers stream movies from Netflix and Amazon.com on their TVs, along with music from Pandora Media, has sold more than 500,000 of its devices, Wood said revenue may almost double to about $75 million this year.

In a market share fight with games consoles, to win customers, Wood plans to continue cutting the price of his devices, which sold for $115 in May 2008 and now go for as little as $80.

“It gets cheaper and cheaper, and the box will be free at some point in the not-too-distant future,” said Wood, whose ReplayTV was an early seller of digital-video recorders. “We see hardware margins becoming less important over time and subscription content becoming more important.”

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