US streaming giant Roku is looking to downsize its Manchester office barely a year after it moved into its new 115,000 sq ft digs at Bruntwood SciTech’s Circle Square.
Roku’s Manchester chief, director of software and engineering Alastair McGeogh told Prolific North at the time that the company was looking to recruit for more than 50 software engineering roles in Circle Square. He added: “[The intention] is to be a collaborative space where well established companies like ourselves and incubators are coming up and having students and graduates mixing and creatives are mixing in sharing ideas.”
Things could be about to get significantly more collaborative at the Oxford Road tech hub, as Roku looks set to welcome some new neighbours.
Property news specialist Place North West reports that Roku has appointed commercial real estate specialist Colliers to sublet 45,000 sq ft – more than a third – of floorspace at No1 Circle Square.
Roku signed up for its prime Circle Square spot in Autumn 2021. It moved in in early 2022, and counts the the likes of Kalibrate, Octopus Energy, Uber and HVM Catapults as neighbours.
Roku is currently the number one streaming platform by hours streamed and top smart TV OS in the US, serving around 70m households. It was founded by Manchester-born Anthony Wood in 2002, but ironically has struggled to gain a foothold in a European market dominated by Amazon Firestick, Apple TV and the big integrated smart TV players like Samsung and LG.
Prolific North has approached Roku, which also has UK offices in London, Cambridge, and Cardiff, for comment.
