*By Britt Terrell*
Roku, the leading provider of over-the-top hardware, has shifted its focus from selling TV boxes to providing access to streaming content through its platform on others' devices.
The company is happy to trade the margins it makes on selling OTT hardware for growing its users, said Steve Louden, Roku's chief financial officer.
"We focus on two things: driving active account growth ー that's the scale of the platform ー and then monetizing the platform," Louden said in an interview Wednesday with Cheddar. "Players are important to us, but they are just one of three ways we grow active accounts," he added.
Roku sells players to plug into TVs; it licenses its platform to TV manufacturers, and licenses its operating system to streaming and telecommunications companies like Sky in Britain and Telstra in Australia.
Hardware sales are becoming less important to the company's bottom line, Louden said, and focus has shifted to its platform business, which has more potential users. The company has 21 million active users, most of them in the U.S., and the company is looking to grow internationally. It's already in 23 countries.
"Roku historically has been primarily focused on being and maintaining our leadership position as the number one streaming platform in the U.S.," Louden said. "But increasingly we are looking to the international markets as well."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/roku-cfo-talks-stock-performance-and-national-streaming-day).
U.S. stocks closed Thursday at their lowest levels of the trading day, as investors continue to eye inflation ahead of the May CPI report out Friday. Art Hogan, Chief Market Strategist for National Holdings, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
U.S. markets opened sharply lower on Friday on hotter-than-expected inflation data. The May CPI showed an 8.6% jump in consumer prices year-over-year, higher the expected 8.3%. Mark Howard, Senior Multi-Asset Specialist at BNP Paribas joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
U.S. stocks closed Friday at session lows after May CPI data showed inflation in the U.S. has not peaked and is still rising rapidly. For the week, the S&P fell 5.06%, the Dow lost 4.58%, and the Nasdaq dropped 5.60%, marking the worst week since January for all three major indexes. Mike Zigmont, Head of Trading and Research at Harvest Volatility Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Benefits brokerage, Nava Benefits, raised $40 million in a Series B round. Nava says it's on a mission to fix healthcare, one benefits plan at a time. The startup is working to bring benefits to small business that are normally available to only Fortune 500 companies. Brandon Weber, Co-Founder and CEO of Nava Benefits, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The electric vehicle maker filed a proposal for a three-for-one stock split, increasing the accessibility of shares for investors for a stock trading at around $700 a share. The move comes not long after tech giant Amazon announced a 20-for-one split. The number of authorized shares rises from two billion to six billion. It was also revealed that board member Larry Ellison does not intend to stand for reelection as it pertains to Tesla.
President Biden proposed a new rule that would add 500,000 chargers for electric vehicles nationwide. The proposal comes amid the rapid shift to EVs with dozens of automakers announcing plans for all-electric fleets within the next decade. But with the new surge will the U.S. have the proper infrastructure to keep up? Scott Painter, founder and CEO of Autonomy.com joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss. "I really think the idea of standardization is a big deal. Standardization certainly makes it much better for everybody to be able to get a charge when they need one," he said.
