fuboTV, the live-TV streaming platform, has agreed to be acquired by publicly-traded FaceBank Group, the character-based virtual entertainment company. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed but fuboTV will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of FaceBank Group after the transaction closes. “The business combination of FaceBank Group and fuboTV accelerates our ability to build a category-defining company and supports our goal to provide consumers with a technology-driven cable TV replacement service for the whole family. With our growing businesses in the U.S., and recent beta launches in Canada and Europe, fuboTV is well-positioned to achieve its goal of becoming a world-leading live TV streaming platform for premium sports, news, and entertainment content. In the current COVID-19 environment, stay-at-home stocks make perfect sense – we plan to accelerate our timing to uplist to a major exchange as soon as practicable. We look forward to working with John (Textor) and his team of creative visionaries,” remarked David Gandler, CEO of fuboTV.
The business combination of FaceBank Group and fuboTV accelerates our ability to build a category-defining company and supports our goal to provide consumers with a technology-driven cable TV replacement service for the whole family. With our growing businesses in the U.S., and recent beta launches in Canada and Europe, fuboTV is well-positioned to achieve its goal of becoming a world-leading live TV streaming platform for premium sports, news, and entertainment content. In the current COVID-19 environment, stay-at-home stocks make perfect sense – we plan to accelerate our timing to uplist to a major exchange as soon as practicable. We look forward to working with John and his team of creative visionaries – David Gandler
Founded in 2014 by Gandler, Alberto Horihuela, and Sung Ho Choi, fuboTV had raised $151.3M in reported equity funding. DCM Ventures, Northzone, BAM Ventures, I2BF Global Ventures, Sky UK, LionTree Partners, Luminari Capital, 21st Century Fox, Scripps Networks, AMC Networks, Neeraj Bhargava, and David Hou. AlleyWatch first covered fuboTV’s Series A round back in 2015.
The two parties are calling this acquisition as a merger but it appears to be a reverse merger that enables FuboTV to operate as a public company and there was not an independent third company created that merged the two entities. FaceBrand Group will now operate as FuboTV Inc. and be led by Gandler, headquartered in New York. As a part of this transaction, FaceBank will issue $100M in debt according to a recent SEC filing.
“As a tech-driven IP company, FaceBank was looking to find the perfect delivery platform for its celebrity and consumer-driven content, with a dynamic user interface that could support the global consumers’ rapidly evolving practices of content consumption. David and his team have a clear vision of the future and fuboTV’s technology is second to none among the disruptor class of content delivery – a perfect match for FaceBank Group,” remarked FaceBank founders John Textor and Alex Bafer.
As a tech-driven IP company, FaceBank was looking to find the perfect delivery platform for its celebrity and consumer-driven content, with a dynamic user interface that could support the global consumers’ rapidly evolving practices of content consumption. David and his team have a clear vision of the future and fuboTV’s technology is second to none among the disruptor class of content delivery – a perfect match for FaceBank Group – John Textor and Alex Bafer
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