The famous American film and TV content production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer may soon have a new owner. According to Variety magazine, the giant Amazon has put a $9 billion acquisition offer on the table.
Although no one from Amazon or MGM has confirmed these claims, Variety reports that there has been speculation in the industry for months that Amazon is interested in acquiring the film studio and expanding its media business, and that Vice President of Amazon Studios and Prime Video, Mike Hopkins, is in charge of this 'deal'.
The Largest Library
Supporting the rumors is the fact that the tech giant has decided to pay more attention to the entertainment segment and has brought back former manager and Amazon veteran Jeff Blackburn to the company, appointing him as the head of Global Media & Entertainment. As Variety continues, Amazon currently has over 200 million Prime subscribers, and Jeff Bezos recently informed investors that 175 million of them have 'streamed' content from the Prime Video platform.
MGM, on the other hand, has the largest library of premium film and TV content and would be an excellent addition to Amazon’s platform and an extension of their business. Their archive contains over four thousand film titles, 17 thousand episodes of TV series, and a range of reality formats from The Voice to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
The media business contributes a relatively small share to Amazon’s total revenue but is continuously growing. Just last year, the company spent $11 billion on film and TV content for Prime, which is a 40 percent increase compared to 2019. In the first quarter of 2021, MGM reported total revenues of $403.3 million (a 27 percent increase) and a net income of $29.3 million (in the same period in 2019, they had a net loss of $12.1 million).
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