US Amazon acquires giant media company MGM.Acquisition amount over $ 8.4 billion

Amazon is too strong ...

Amazon has officially announced the acquisition of MGM (Metro-Goldwyn Mayer), a giant media company. The purchase price is 8.45 billion dollars, which is about 900 billion yen in Japanese yen.

MGM produces many works including movies and television. The masterpiece that everyone knows is the "007 series". In recent topical works, "A Star Is Born" is also MGM. While thinking that Amazon Prime Video will be strengthened more and more, the real value of getting MGM is not the strengthening of distribution services but the intellectual property itself. More than 4000 movies owned by MGM, 17,000 TV shows, and these rights belong to Amazon.

Original content that Amazon focuses on

Since 2013, Amazon has been focusing on creating original content. The production of the original Prequel of "The Lord of the Rings" has been decided, but the production cost of Season 1 is a surprising $ 465 million with financial power as a weapon!

Mike Hopkins, Senior VP of Prime Video & Amazon Studios, commented in a press release announcing the acquisition: "In this case, the true value of financial assets is the reserve of intellectual property. It is about reimagining a deep catalog of works and building it together with MGM's talented team." "There are many opportunities to send out high-quality stories. I am very excited to be able to provide it. "

Considering that the creation of works by a long-established media company will be realized with Amazon funds, it can be said that it is a welcome acquisition for viewers, but I wonder if this acquisition will win for MGM as well. MGM has been rumored to be acquired for some time, but in fact Apple was also interested in Comcast, but the offer was about $ 6 billion.

It was Amazon's second-largest acquisition after the acquisition of supermarket chain Whole Foods for $ 13.7 billion in 2017. As Recode points out, the acquisition could violate antitrust laws, so it's not yet clear if the acquisition will be fully completed in the future.

By the way, some long-time "007 series" fans may be worried about future developments, but don't worry. The Broccoli family (series producer), who owns the rights to the work together with MGM, also has a creative policy, and in the interview with Variety, it seems that they do not think that they will release a new work only with Amazon Prime Video.

Source: Amazon