Roku attempts rebound with new products after competitor threats
Less than 24 hours after its stock was rocked by a stunning move into its territory by a media giant, Roku is trying to bounce back Thursday with five new products. After a sluggish start to trading, Roku seems to have regained the market's confidence with stocks showing significant gains. early Thursday.
Roku saw their stock price drop over 13 percent at the market close on Wednesday in the wake of the announcement that Comcast is offering its Xfinity Flex streaming TV device to internet customers for free. Then, Facebook revealed a price and date for its own streaming device, Portal TV, a serious encroachment on Roku's turf.
With approximately 15 percent of the market value, Roku’s response to the double salvo is indicative of the threat that both Facebook and Comcast pose to Roku's current grip on the market.
Of the five new products, the attention grabber is the Ultra set-top box that boasts both greater speed and memory capabilities. A customizable remote allowing the assignment of two channels on a permanent basis is a nice wrinkle added to this year’s box set as well.
In addition to the Ultra, Roku announced new versions of the Roku Streaming Stick, the Roku Premiere (for 4K and HDR streaming), Roku Express for easy streaming as well product specifics for box chains Walmart and Best Buy.
At the start of trading on Thursday, the stock continued to edge down premarket and took a small dive after the opening bell. But as the morning wore on, Roku rebounded with stready gains.
It has been a rocky few weeks for Roku. Since reaching a high for the month of September of $169.86 on September 6, the price has dropped in the following days with Apple TV+ announcing their pricing model. Roku closed on Wednesday night at $129.88.