Washington, D.C. — Fox closed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku Friday, shortly after the Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared the deal without filing a complaint or consent decree in court, abandoning its own prior concerns over the deal’s impact on competition in TV and streaming markets. In August, while the DOJ was reviewing the merger, Fox Corporation announced a million-dollar contribution and “strategic partnership” with First Lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative. The American Economic Liberties Project is calling on Congress and the state attorneys general already examining the deal, to investigate the circumstances of its approval. 

“It should set off every alarm bell that the Fox Corporation is giving any money to the First Lady’s foster care initiative during the Justice Department’s review of its Roku deal,” said Lee Hepner, Senior Legal Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “This is part of a documented pattern, where big media corporations curry favor with the administration, via donations and promises of favorable coverage, and then deals get done. How can anyone credibly argue that this Justice Department is still committed to the rule of law?”

“The next Congress has a responsibility to take these sorts of transactions seriously and root out the blatant corruption that has allowed America to turn into an oligarchy, where power keeps getting consolidated at a remarkable rate” added Hepner, noting that the next Congress should also prioritize structural separation of the film and television industries. 

Days before closing, Semafor reported the deal was poised to clear “under consent decree.” Instead, the DOJ closed its review with a simple affirmative press statement outlining commitments from Fox, several of which expire in just three years, and leaving the conditions without any judicial enforcement mechanism attached. Even if enforceable, merger concessions don’t work, as Economic Liberties has extensively documented. In merger after merger, from Live Nation-Ticketmaster to Albertsons-Safeway, companies made sweeping promises to win approval and abandoned them once the deal closed. 

The DOJ approval of the deal came over the objections of members of Congress led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Becca Balint, whose October reporter “Settling for Less,” documented the “influence peddling” and “cloud of corruption” surrounding the Justice Department’s approach to antitrust enforcement. As of late October, a group of State Attorneys General were reportedly examining the merger, and even if the deal closes, the states retain the authority to challenge it. 

The acquisition hands Fox — owner of Fox News, Fox Sports, and streaming service Tubi — Roku’s leading connected-TV operating platform and advertising business, giving one company control of roughly one in seven U.S. TV advertising dollars, access to Roku’s extensive viewer data, and powerful new ways to disadvantage rival networks and streamers.

Fox has also already announced planned layoffs to fuel its expected $400 million in annualized cost “synergies” within the next two years.

Read our memo about the false promise of merger ‘concessions’ here.

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