Washington (AFP)
Amazon will buy the famous Hollywood studio MGM, behind the James Bond franchise, for 8.45 billion dollars, announced Wednesday the American giant of the online trade which will thus get its hands on a vast catalog to pursue its ambitions in terms of streaming.
The two sides have "reached a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for a purchase price of $ 8.45 billion," Amazon said.
It is the second most expensive acquisition in Amazon history after buying US supermarkets Whole Foods for $ 13.7 billion in 2017.
“MGM has nearly a century of cinematic history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing television show programs,” he added.
“The real financial value of this deal is the full catalog intellectual property treasure that we plan to reinvent and develop with the talented MGM team,” commented Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon. Studios.
However, Amazon assures that it will help "to preserve the legacy and the catalog of films of MGM, and will offer to the customers a better access to these existing works".
Like many American movie studios, MGM has suffered greatly from the Covid-19 pandemic and the prolonged closure of movie theaters around the world.
Initially expected in theaters in March 2020, James Bond's latest opus, "No Time To Die", has thus seen its release postponed several times and should finally be screened in theaters from September 30.
The deal strengthens Amazon Prime Video, which competes with Netflix and others in a rapidly changing market, with some 4,000 films, including the James Bond franchise, and 17,000 TV shows.
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Amazon had for its part in mid-April more than 200 million users of its premium service, which provides access to free and fast deliveries and to its streaming platform.
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