fuboTV Acquires France’s Molotov

fuboTV has reached a deal to acquire the French live TV streaming company Molotov for €164.3 million in a cash and equity transaction.

The acquisition will help spur global expansion at fuboTV, which will leverage Molotov’s live streaming service and AVOD platform Mango, which have nearly 4 million users in France. Molotov, meanwhile, will benefit from fuboTV’s marketing expertise as well as its sports content.

“Molotov has set the benchmark for ad-supported and subscription streaming platforms in Europe,” said David Gandler, co-founder and CEO of fuboTV. “We believe this strategic asset will help accelerate our goal of achieving global scale and operating leverage as we continue to improve and innovate on our live, interactive streaming TV experience for sports fans and their families.”

The acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2022. Molotov will continue to be based in Paris and led by JeanDavid Blanc, who founded the platform with Canal+ co-founder Pierre Lescure in 2015.

Blanc commented, “We’re thrilled to scale Molotov with fuboTV, with whom we share the same ambition and vision for a live TV streaming platform. Our goal is to provide consumers with a best-in-class streaming experience with premium television content on a global scale.”

fuboTV operates in the U.S. and Canada and entered Europe in 2018 with a launch in Spain. Molotov operates in France, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon and expects to launch soon in the Democratic Republic of Congo.