Roku feels remote

Bezos-Best Buy smart-TV menace

Roku’s stock plummeted on Wednesday after Amazon and Best Buy said they are teaming up to sell smart TVs.

Amazon and Best Buy said the exclusive partnership will mean some TVs — from Insignia and Toshiba brands — sold at the brick-and-mortar chain’s 1,500 locations will come with Amazon’s Fire TV technology and the Alexa virtual assistant built in.

That’s a potential blow to Roku, whose operating system is built into many smart TVs.

Roku generates nearly half of its revenue from advertising and subscriptions through that platform, in addition to the sale of its individual streaming sticks and boxes.

Investors sold off Roku shares on the news, pushing down the price of the company’s stock by 12 percent, to $31.72. Meanwhile, Best Buy shares were up 3.6 percent, to $75.40.

Roku’s losses erased Tuesday’s 9 percent gain sparked by news that it would carry Disney’s new ESPN+ app — and wiped out any good feeling from the revelation that hedge fund billionaire Steven Cohen owns a 5.1 percent stake in Roku.

In a statement, Best Buy Chief Executive Hubert Joly said that the partnership with Amazon would “enrich the lives of ” its customers.

“Our partnership with Amazon is exciting because we believe Fire TV Edition delivers an incredible user experience and further strengthens the growing connection between home theater, home automation and voice control,” he said.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos added on Twitter that he “couldn’t ask for a better partner” than Best Buy.