Amazon Buys MGM Film Studio for $8 45B themiddlemarket.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from themiddlemarket.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SHARE
Amazon.com agreed to buy the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie company for $8.45 billion, a bet that a nearly century-old Hollywood icon can feed an insatiable demand for streaming content.
The takeover is Amazon’s biggest acquisition since it agreed to buy Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7bn but follows investments of about $11bn on content for its streaming video and music services last year alone.
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team,” said Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, in a statement. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”
Amazon has nabbed a lion in winter.
The retail and entertainment giant announced Wednesday that it would acquire MGM, the storied movie studio for $8.5 billion, giving them the keys to franchises like James Bond and Rocky, and landing the flagging studio around $3 billion more than its valuation. If all this consolidation seems like a product of the 21st century’s rapacious online monopolies, it’s actually true to the spirit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s multihyphenate origins.
It all started with a few Jews. Samuel Goldwyn (né Goldfish), a Polish immigrant, who founded Goldwyn Pictures in 1916, produced a raft of silent films, standing out from the crowd of upstart studios with a striking production card featuring a real-life lion encircled in a crest.
Kelly Gilblom and Spencer Soper
May 26, 2021 â 11.45pm
Save
Share
Amazon agreed to buy the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie company for $US8.45 billion ($10.9 billion), a bet that a nearly century-old Hollywood icon can feed an insatiable demand for streaming content.
The takeover is Amazonâs biggest acquisition since it agreed to buy Whole Foods in 2017 for $US13.7 billion but follows investments of about $US11 billion on content for its streaming video and music services last year alone.
âThe real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGMâs talented team,â said Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, in a statement. âItâs very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.â