Amazon Acquires MGM In $8.45 Billion Deal

Amazon has officially acquired MGM Studios, the company announced today. The deal, which is worth $8.45 billion, means that Amazon Prime Video will now be home to over 4,000 film titles from MGM, plus countless TV shows. Amazon said in a press release that MGM “complements” Amazon Studios, which “has primarily focused on producing TV show programming.”

With the acquisition of MGM, Amazon promises to “preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films,” which includes 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, The Thomas Crown Affair, and more.

“MGM has a vast catalog with more than 4,000 films … that have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. “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. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”

Kevin Ulrich, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MGM, added, “It has been an honor to have been a part of the incredible transformation of Metro Goldwyn Mayer. To get here took immensely talented people with a true belief in one vision. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank the MGM team who have helped us arrive at this historic day.

“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,” he said. “The opportunity to align MGM’s storied history with Amazon is an inspiring combination.”

Under the new deal, Amazon gets a major boost for its Prime Video streaming service, which is competing with industry giants like Netflix, which boasts over 200 million subscribers, and Disney+, which has been rapidly growing its customer base since 2019 and currently has 103 million subscribers. Amazon has over 200 million global subscribers, and says more than 175 million of them streamed content on Prime Video last year.

While Prime Video has its own collection of popular series — including The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Fleabag, and the newly released Underground Railroad — it will now feature MGM TV titles like The Handmaid’s Tale, Fargo, and Vikings.

Amazon’s MGM deal comes just a week after two other media giants joined forces. AT&T announced last week that it was selling WarnerMedia for $43 billion and merging it with Discovery to create one company, which will feature the libraries of both Discovery+ and HBO Max.