By Stuart Thomson
Live sports streaming outfit fuboTV has closed its acquisition of French streaming company Molotov earlier than expected.
The acquisition, announced on November 9, was previously expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.
FuboTV said that the synergies between it and Molotov’s technology and teams are expected to enable both companies to accelerate their growth.
The company highlighted the benefits of Molotov’s streaming platform, which it said was designed to be easily localized for new markets and languages, facilitating efficient launches in additional countries as fuboTV considers expanding its global footprint and launching its interactive sports and entertainment streaming platform globally.
fuboTV said it plans to tap into Molotov’s freemium strategy and low-cost marketing for international growth while implementing its own marketing technology to accelerate Molotov subscriptions.
fuboTV will also look to provide Molotov with sports content and sports-first product features.
Molotov’s offerings include its direct-to-consumer live TV streaming service and its advertising video-on-demand (AVOD) service, Mango, which combined total nearly four million monthly active users in France.
Molotov will continue to be based in Paris and led by JeanDavid Blanc who has been named president and will report directly to David Gandler, fuboTV’s co-founder and CEO.
fuboTV plans to further expand Molotov’s product and engineering team in Paris.
fuboTV currently operates in the US and Canada entered Europe with its 2018 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. The Company also operates in Morocco through a partnership with Maroc telecom.
Gandler said: “With today’s closing, fuboTV has acquired a very talented team and an innovative tech stack that can help accelerate our development in the US with a judicious deployment of minimal incremental investment dollars. At the same time, this combination will provide technology to grow Molotov’s business model. Over the long term, we believe the synergies of the combined company will give us operating leverage to build a scalable global platform as we continue on our mission to deliver the world’s leading interactive sports and entertainment live TV experience.”
