FuboTV Acquires Molotov SAS For $190M

Sports-focused streaming service FuboTV announced its $190 million acquisition of French TV streaming company Molotov SAS on Tuesday, the same day it reported $156.7 million in third-quarter revenue.

Molotov will boost FuboTV’s global expansion with operations in France, Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Cameroon, as well as a presence in Morocco and plans to launch in the Democratic Republic of Congo. FuboTV emphasized Molotov’s ability to easily localize for additional markets and languages.

Molotov, which operates a “freemium” business model, and Mango, its advertising video-on-demand platform, have roughly 4 million monthly active users combined in France. FuboTV announced it passed the 1 million subscriber mark in its earnings report on Tuesday.

FuboTV will add sports content to the French service, which currently offers live and on-demand TV series, movies, documentaries, and children’s content.

• FuboTV acquired Vigtory in March, the platform’s first investment in sports gambling.
• In September, the service struck a distribution deal with Root Sports, the home broadcaster of Gonzaga basketball, the Seattle Mariners and Kraken, and regional broadcasts of the Portland Trail Blazers.
• In April, FuboTV acquired exclusive streaming rights to the 2022 World Cup qualifying matches of the South America Football Confederation.

At least 85% of the deal is expected to be in equity, with the remaining amount in cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2022.