Big tech giant buys the motion picture company in mega media deal
Amazon Inc. unveiled its acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Wednesday at a deal valuing upwards of $8.4 billion.
Fox News’ “America Reports” co-anchor Sandra Smith joined the Fox Business’ “Kudlow” citing that “this is Jeff Bezos‘ largest acquisition since Whole Foods. That was $13.7 billion back in 2017, there is so much competition for the streaming space that this is the way Bezos sees in. So it’s a it’s a huge deal.”
The film studio’s buyout is yet another enormous deal secured by the tech giant targeting the streaming industry. With Amazon’s latest acquisition, the deal delivers more than 4,000 films and 17,000 shows.
“So for Amazon, that’s primarily competed in the show space, this builds their film space and adds a lot of the shows that you’re going to want to watch and a lot of the movies. ‘James Bond’ is added, the ‘Rocky’ franchise has been added, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ TV series has been added in this. Huge, huge deal,” said Smith.
MGM’s vast library catalog features other popular films such as ‘Silence of the Lambs,’ ‘The Pink Panther,’ and ‘The Hobbit.’ Since its inception, the studio has won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys.
Amazon’s Prime video service calculated an uptick in viewership in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic with a 70% increase in streaming hours versus the previous year. With more than 200 million Prime members, Amazon continues to expand its Prime Video production giving users an even wider range of content.
According to Amazon’s 2020 annual report, the company spent a $11 billion on their Prime service substantially boosting the corporate giant’s streaming ambitions.
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Acquiring one of Hollywood’s oldest studios further strengthens Amazon’s artillery competing against The Walt Disney Company’s Disney+ and Netflix. Disney cashed in on the 21st Century Fox mega-deal worth $71.3 billion in 2019 prior to its launch of Disney+.
“This way they’re going to be able to compete with Netflix like they haven’t been able to before,” said “Kudow” host David Asman. “Netflix comes out with more original stuff, I think more than Prime does up until now. But with MGM behind them, they could probably see what Netflix does.”
Billionaire and entrepreneur Jeff Bezos founded the online book marketplace in 1995 constructing it into an astounding $1.6 trillion empire.