You know how Amazon is a small company with little influence over our daily lives? Well, that’s about to change. Variety reports that the multinational giant is merging with MGM, which is a nice-sounding way of saying that Amazon bought the nearly-100-year-old studio for $8.45 billion, which is their second biggest acquisition after Whole Foods.
What does this mean? Mainly that Amazon is going to have a lot more exclusive content on its Amazon Prime Video streaming service. MGM, which has garnered almost 200 Oscars over the decades, has over 4,000 movies and 17,000 TV shows in its catalog. We’re talking classics like Singin’ in the Rain, The Silence of the Lambs and the Rocky movies, not to mention popular TV shows like Vikings and The Handmaid’s Tale. And then there’s the crown jewel: the James Bond series.
SyFy Wire notes that Amazon will still have to go through longtime Bond bosses Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson when making major decisions about the franchise, so unless they okay it, it’s doubtful that new Bond film No Time To Die will go stream-exclusive or anything, but still, this is a big deal. Amazon, for its part, vowed to “preserve MGM’s heritage and catalog of films,” and senior VP of Prime Video and Amazon Studios Mike Hopkins was open about what the company is getting for its money: “The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of [intellectual property] 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.”
Is it a good thing that Amazon can dominate any business it wants?
Amazon, of course, is one of the world’s biggest companies; as huge as they’re getting in the video space, it’s still a fraction of their business. Did you know they also own Twitch and Audible, in addition to their online retail empire?
Giant conglomerates taking over industries like this makes me nervous, and I’m not the only one. Literally earlier today, it was announced that the attorney general of Washington, D.C. had filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company, alleging that Amazon broke the law by requiring that third-party sellers not offer better deals for their products elsewhere. And buying up MGM doesn’t make them look like any less of a corporate vacuum.
Amazon has a couple of huge fantasy shows coming, too. What will that rascal Jeff Bezos do next?
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