This scrappy company has fended off competition from Apple and Amazon — and now it's heading for an IPO

roku

Roku has made official what's been rumored: it wants to go public.

The digital media player maker publicly filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday — the first big step for a company seeking an initial public offering of its shares. Nominally, according to the filing, the company seeks to raise as much as $100 million through the stock sale.

The company sells boxes that allow consumers to stream Netflix, YouTube and other streaming video services to their televisions. It also offers its software to other consumers electronics makers who want to use it as the interface for their smart TVs.

Business has been good for Roku. In the first half of 2017, it posted revenue of $199.7 million, up 23% from the same period in 2016, according to the filing. In fiscal year 2016, the company had a total of $398.6 million in revenue, up 25% from 2015.

As of June 30, Roku had 15.1 million active accounts on its service, according to the filing. Customers using Roku devices or TV's with its interface streamed 6.7 billion hours of internet video in the first half of 2017 — up 62% from the same period in 2016, the company said in the filing.

The Los Gatos, California, based company has been rumored to be moving toward an initial public offering (IPO) since July, when it hired Morgan Stanley and Citigroup as underwriters, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Roku was expected to move toward an IPO in 2014, but it never materialized.

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