After the purchasing frenzy a week ago, M&A mania in the media market has continued with confirmation of the expected new that Amazon has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MGM.
Completion of the transaction, valued at $8.45 billion, is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions but if carried out will see the e-commerce and IT giant company own one of the world’s deepest libraries of premium film and television content. MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and the acquisition is seen as complementing the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming. Amazon says that it will help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalogue of films and provide customers with greater access to these existing works.
MGM has a catalogue containing more than 4,000 films—12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther and The Thomas Crown Affair — as well as 17,000 TV shows—including Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Vikings. These have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys.
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalogue that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling,” said Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios.
Giving his opinion on the deal, Kevin Ulrich, chairman of the board of directors of MGM remarked: “It has been an honour to have been a part of the incredible transformation of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. 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.”
In December 2020, as part of a process to reimagine its core media supply chain and enterprise-wide media distribution platform, MGM announced it was to use AWS cloud services to develop new business models for distributing film and TV content.
MGM has a catalogue containing more than 4,000 films—12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther and The Thomas Crown Affair — as well as 17,000 TV shows—including Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Vikings. These have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys.
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalogue that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling,” said Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios.
Giving his opinion on the deal, Kevin Ulrich, chairman of the board of directors of MGM remarked: “It has been an honour to have been a part of the incredible transformation of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. 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.”
In December 2020, as part of a process to reimagine its core media supply chain and enterprise-wide media distribution platform, MGM announced it was to use AWS cloud services to develop new business models for distributing film and TV content.
