Bezos catches the lion after Whole Foods purchase Mgm biggest hit for Amazon

Jeff Bezos captures the legendary Hollywood lion. After the purchase of Whole Foods, the US supermarket chain, for $ 13.7 billion in 2017, the acquisition of MGM for $ 8.45 billion is the second biggest hit in Amazon’s history. The purchase of Metro Goldwyn Mayer, the historic company founded in 1924 and which has over 4,000 titles and over 17,000 TV series in its catalog, represents for Bezos a real hunting trophy that will allow Amazon to make a new leap in quality. . According to industry observers, Amazon and MGM have everything to gain from this union that comes after a few weeks of negotiation: they could, in fact, be able to do what they were not able to do separately. Metro Goldwyn Mayer in recent years has not been able to keep up with modern Hollywood while Amazon has not been able to create enough content to cope with the competition of other players in the market such as Disney, Paramount and Netflix. The acquisition of MGM, according to some analysts and industry observers cited by the ‘Wall Street Journal’, “is proof that Amazon is unable to create content fast enough to win new subscribers on its own to compete in streaming with other giants. like Disney + and Netflix “. The announced merger, writes the Washington Post, “brings together an old world with a new one”. With MGM, which was controlled by some funds including Anchorage Capital Group, writes the US newspaper, “Amazon gets an important weapon in attracting users to Prime Video, its entertainment subscription platform.” A move by Amazon which intervenes at a time of strong consolidation in the sector. Disney and its streaming subsidiary Hulu strengthened with the acquisition of the assets of Twentieth Century Fox. On May 17, however, AT&T, three years after having acquired Time Warner for over 85 billion dollars, signed an agreement that provides for the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery with the aim of creating a company capable of competing better in the market of streaming. The new joint venture that will be created for the occasion will include Warner Bros, the Hbo streaming platform, Cartonn Network, Tcm and Cnn and on the other hand the thematic channels Discovery, Hgtv and Food Network will join. invested approximately $ 11 billion in TV series, movies and music for its Prime Video streaming services. Amazon Prime also took over the NFL ‘Thursday Night Football’ package from 2023 and for ten years for a price of $ 1 billion every year.With the acquisition of MGM, however, Amazon will not own the rights to the films produced. prior to 1948 as ‘Gone with the Wind’, the film directed by Victor Fleming from 1939 and won eight Oscars in 1940. These rights had been sold and now belong to Warner.