Amazon on Wednesday announced that it will acquire film production company Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) for $8.45 billion. The deal marks Amazon’s second largest acquisition ever behind Whole Foods and will drastically increase the number of film and television titles available on Prime Video.
“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, SVP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”
Amazon has made expanding its entertainment business a key focus over the last several years, with Prime Video and Amazon Studios playing an essential role in keeping customers signed up for Amazon Prime subscriptions. The Prime Video push is even more relevant now as Amazon faces an increasing number of Prime subscribers frustrated by the recent disappearance of two-day shipping windows.
The so-called “streaming wars” also play into Amazon’s purchase of MGM. Amazon Prime Video already has one of the largest libraries of any streaming service, and the MGM company controls a catalog of more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows. In buying MGM, Amazon will now have lasting access to that content as it competes with Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV+ for streaming subscribers.
Amazon also said MGM complements the work of Amazon Studios, as its primary focus has been on producing TV show programming rather than original feature films.
