Amazon reportedly agreed to buy film production studio, MGM for US $ 8.45 billion.
MGM is one of the most popular studios in Hollywood and has released several classic films such as Some Like It Hot and Singin ’In The Rain.
The purchase will give Amazon’s streaming service Prime, access to a large catalog of movie content.
“It’s an exciting thing and provides a lot of opportunities for high -quality storytelling,” said Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios.
Hopkins added, the real financial value behind the deal is the Intellectual Property treasures that he plans to develop alongside MGM’s talented team.
The deal will increase Amazon Prime Video's offering to around 4,000 movies including the James Bond and Legally Blonde franchises as well as 17,000 television shows such as Handmaid's Tale.
MGM Holdings, the parent company of MGM Studios, has reportedly been looking for a way to sell the studio since last year.
The Amazon-MGM deal was announced a few weeks after telco AT&T agreed to merge WarnerMedia's unit with Discovery in a $ 43 billion deal to set up a new streaming giant.
The MGM acquisition is Amazon’s second -largest deal after the company bought its retail chain, Whole Foods Market for $ 13.7 billion in 2017.
According to a report by Variety magazine citing the producer behind the making of James Bond, the deal, however, did not affect the release date of the franchise's latest film, No Time to Die in cinemas.
