Business Case Studies & Business Publications

Roku, Inc.: Initial Public Offering

Lipson, Marc L., X...

Case

Roku, Inc.: Initial Public Offering

Lipson, Marc L.; Xu, Ting

F-1855 | Published August 7, 2019 | 19 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

Product Details

In September 2017, a senior portfolio manager at Portland Capital Management had all her attention focused on the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of Roku, Inc. The company had just updated its initial filing to indicate an offer price between $12 and $14, and Portland Capital Management had an opportunity to take a substantial position in that offering. She saw the upside potential in Roku’s shift from hardware-related revenue streams (player sales) to platform-related revenue streams (advertising and content purchases made on the platform). But she was also well aware of the riskiness of this strategy and the uncertain state of IPO markets at that time.