Advanced Television

FaceBank Group, fuboTV merger

March 24, 2020

Celebrity and sports-focused virtual entertainment company FaceBank Group and live TV streaming platform fuboTV have entered into a definitive merger agreement.

Immediately following the closing of the merger, fuboTV will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of FaceBank, and FaceBank will be renamed fuboTV Inc. The combined company is expected to be headquartered in New York and led by fuboTV CEO David Gandler as CEO. Additional announcements regarding the combined company’s management structure and the Board of Directors will be forthcoming.

The proposed merger is expected to create a leading digital entertainment company, combining fuboTV’s direct-to-consumer live TV streaming platform for cord-cutters with FaceBank’s technology-driven IP in sports, movies and live performances. This combination will create a content delivery platform for traditional and future-form IP. fuboTV plans to leverage FaceBank’s IP sharing relationships with leading celebrities and other digital technologies to enhance its sports and entertainment offerings.

The companies also believe the merger will position fuboTV to continue its global expansion with FaceBank’s Nexway AG, a global ecommerce and payment platform with a business presence in 180 countries, accepting payments in roughly 140 currencies. fuboTV was the first virtual MVPD to commit to global expansion and in 2018 entered Europe with its launch in Spain.

“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,” commented Gander. “With our growing businesses in the US, 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.”

“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,” added 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.”

Since its founding in 2015 as a football streaming service, fuboTV has evolved into a live TV streaming platform with more top Nielsen-ranked sports, news and entertainment channels for cord-cutters than any other live platform. Continually innovating to give subscribers a premium viewing experience they can’t find with cable TV, fuboTV is regularly first-to-market with new product features and is the only virtual MVPD to stream in 4K.

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