Virtual MVPD service FuboTV agreed to be acquired by tech company FaceBank Group.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions of streaming services. Pluto TV was acquired last year by Viacom. More recently Xumo agreed to be acquired by Comcast and Fox agreed to buy Tubi.
FaceBank said that after the merger, FuboTV will become a wholly owned subsidiary of FaceBank. The combined company will be called fuboTV Inc.
Fubu TV CEO David Gandler is expected to be the CEO of the combined company.
The companies said the combination creates a leading digital entertainment entity combining fubo’s live streaming with FaceBank’s technology driven intellectual property in sports, movies and live performances. The company plans to continue to expand globally, using FaceBank’s Nexway AG eCommerce platform to accept payments.
“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,” said Gandler. “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."
Fubo started as a soccer streaming service and has expanded into other sports and entertainment channels.
Fubo had raised more than $150 million in funding. Investors included 21st Century Fox, AMC Networks, Luminari Capital, Northzone, Sky, Discovery, Waverly Capital, DCM Ventures, i2bf, LionTree Partners, Univision, Edgar Bronfman Jr., Chris Silbermann and the late NBA commissioner David Stern.
FaceBank develops digital likeness assets of celebrities and consumers for used in artificial intelligence, entertainment, personal productivity and social networking.
“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,” said FaceBank founders John Textor and Alex Bafer. “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.”
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