LOS GATOS, Calif. _ TV streaming startup Roku popped in its public market debut Thursday, with its shares climbing nearly 68 percent.
The company was trading at $15.78 when the market opened and, by the time the market closed Thursday afternoon, Roku's shares had jumped to $23.50 _ above the $14 per share price the company set the day before.
"This is an exciting day _ an important milestone for Roku, but really just the beginning, obviously, in our quest to power the world's TVs," Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood said before ringing the opening bell at the Nasdaq building in New York's Times Square. "We're looking forward to the future where all TV is going to be streamed, and Roku is going to be, and is, the leading platform for streaming TV."
Roku raised $219 million in its IPO late Wednesday, pricing 15.7 million shares at $14 _ the high end of the $12-$14 target range the company set last week.
Roku is one of the pioneers of the increasingly popular "cut the cord" movement, which allows people to watch their favorite movies and TV shows online instead of via traditional cable packages. Roku, originally a hardware company, now offers both streaming players and a service that gives users access to programming from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, HBO and more.
Like many Silicon Valley tech companies entering the public market, Roku is not profitable. The startup generated a net loss of $24.2 million on revenue of $199.7 million during the first six months of the year, according to the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. But the company's business is growing. Roku pulled in $398.6 million in revenue last year, up 25 percent from the year before.
And Roku operates the number-one TV streaming platform in the U.S. as measured by total hours streamed, according to the company's filing. As of June 30, Roku had 15.1 million active accounts.
