Amazon acquires MGM Studios in $8.45 billion

Amazon is the leader of the online business market. The company is always looking forward to expanding its business operations. 

 

Amazon is now delivering books and goods at doorsteps through its online delivery platform, providing cloud services through AWS , accepting payments in credit/ non cash through Amazon Payments, and is even working in the movie production sector through Amazon Studios/ Amazon Prime Videos.

 

Prime Videos is a movie streaming platform by Amazon. It has a plethora of options to choose from. Movies, shows or dramas viewers can even watch movies in their regional languages through the platform. 

 

Amazon Prime has 150 million subscribers worldwide, though started as a failure this video streaming service is slowly winning people’s confidence.

 

Amazon will acquire MGM Studios, to provide its users with the best theatrical content. The movies produced by MGM will be made available on Amazon Prime Videos. MGM is an American Media Company that is involved in movie production and distribution.

 

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It has produced some critically acclaimed masterpieces like Skyfall, The Cabin in the Woods, and A Star is Born. Amazon will pay $8.45 billion for the acquisition of MGM Studios.

 

MGM Holdings (parent company of MGM Studios)  announced that it was open to bids in 2020. It was exploring the options of sale. MGM Holdings incurred a net loss of 448.92 million US dollars and went downhill after the loss. Pandemic also paved the way for more loss as theatres were shut for an entire year. 

 

Other companies like Sony Pictures Entertainment, Viacom CBS were also eyeing MGM studios. But Amazon won the bid and paid the highest amount amongst the bidders. The acquisition will not affect MGM’s existing business and further productions. The James Bond series will now be released on Amazon Prime Videos.

 

As the news broke out Amazon’s share price recorded a net profit of 0.19% to reach $ 3,528.00. Company’s  share price on 27 May 2021, 4:30 p.m. was  $ 3,258.00.

 

Amazon’s net income in 2020 was 21.33 billion. Amazon’s net income increased to $8.1 billion(First Quarter 2021)  and hit the all-time high by surpassing the net income of $ 2.5 billion (First Quarter of 2021).

 

As reported by Business Insider India , Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said, "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.”