Amazon Makes Its 2nd-Largest Acquisition

It will buy MGM Studios for $8.45B in deal announced Wednesday
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted May 26, 2021 9:10 AM CDT
Amazon Makes Its 2nd-Largest Acquisition
In this June 19, 2019, file photo, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos speaks during the JFK Space Summit at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.   (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Amazon has made "its boldest move yet into the entertainment industry" with its planned acquisition of movie and TV giant MGM Studios, per CNBC. The company announced Wednesday that it would buy the studio for $8.45 billion, thereby adding MGM's 4,000 films—including the James Bond and Rocky franchises—and 17,000 TV shows—including Shark Tank, The Voice, and The Handmaid's Tale—to its content library. It's the company's second-biggest acquisition ever, following its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods in 2017. But the purchase price is less than the $11 billion Amazon spent on video and music content last year, up from $7.8 billion in 2019, per CNBC.

"The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of [intellectual property] in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM's talented team," Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, says in a statement, teasing "so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling." "The opportunity to align MGM's storied history with Amazon is an inspiring combination," adds MGM Chairman Kevin Ulrich. Amazon, which competes with Netflix and Disney, counts 200 million Prime subscribers worldwide, 175 million of whom streamed video last year, per the Verge. (This new merger would create the world's second largest media firm by revenue.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X