Amazon’s string of high-profile acquisitions continues this week, as the company announced in a press release on Wednesday morning that it will purchase MGM for $8.45 billion. This will be the second-largest acquisition Amazon has made — the retailer paid $13.7 billion for Whole Foods — and gives the company control over some of the biggest film franchises in history.
As Amazon notes in its press release, MGM’s catalog consists of more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows, including massive franchises such as James Bond, Rocky, and Robocop. There are also plenty of classic films that Amazon can now mine for new content, like Silence of the Lambs and The Magnificent Seven, as well as TV shows such as Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Vikings.
“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 Amazon’s press release. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”
Prime Video has yet to challenge Netflix for its crown, but this will certainly change the dynamic going forward as thousands of iconic movies and shows will presumably be added to Amazon’s streaming service in the months to come. Between this acquisition and Amazon’s huge new original shows like The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time, it’s clear that the online retailer wants to give the likes of Netflix and
Kevin Ulrich, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MGM, said the following about the acquisition:
“It has been an honor to have been a part of the incredible transformation of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. To get here took immensely talented people with a true belief in one vision. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank the MGM team who have helped us arrive at this historic day. I am very proud that MGM’s Lion, which has long evoked the Golden Age of Hollywood, will continue its storied history, and the idea born from the creation of United Artists lives on in a way the founders originally intended, driven by the talent and their vision. The opportunity to align MGM’s storied history with Amazon is an inspiring combination.”
Amazon’s MGM announcement comes just days after AT&T announced that WarnerMedia would be spinning off into its own company and merging with Discovery. As the streaming wars heat up, more acquisitions will be made, more mergers will take place, and some of the services that exist today will likely be swallowed up by their competition as companies compete for subscriber counts.
