Roku reported its second quarterly earnings report ever, since becoming a publicly traded company. Andre Swanston, CEO of Tru Optik, an audience measurement and data management platform for OTT, was with us to share why he thinks Roku is positioned for success.
Swanston said the OTT space is "so wild" in terms of the growth in penetration and time spent. On top of that, he said most of that growth is on ad supported platforms, not services like Netflix. This bodes well for Roku because they are the only pure-play OTT company on the street, Swanston said.
Roku debuted a licensing program for smart audio devices and expects the first to ship this fall. They're going up against Amazon, Google, and Apple. Swanston said Roku has no strategic advantage for a smart speaker and does not anticipate it being a significant revenue generator.
In Wednesday's business headlines, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is due in court to defend the company's takeover of Activision Blizzard and United Airlines is under fire over its recent cancellations with CEO Scott Kirby blaming the FAA for the disruptions. Meanwhile, a judge approved Overstock's purchase of Bed Bath & Beyond assets.
Commercial electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection nearly two months after it warned that it was in danger of failing.
