Amazon to acquire film company MGM for $8.45 billion

Amazon plans to acquire MGM for $8.45 billion. The companies have agreed on this. With the acquisition, Amazon will acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s media archive; that consists of about 4000 films and 17,000 TV series.

According to Amazon, MGM’s catalog is a good addition to that of Amazon Studios, which has mainly focused on series. The company lists James Bond, Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate and Tomb Raider as films it will get with the acquisition. It also concerns TV series including Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale and Vikings.

Amazon says it will help preserve MGM’s heritage and give customers wider access to existing work. Amazon also says that after the acquisition, MGM must continue to do what it already does: ‘tell great stories’. It is obvious that Amazon wants to add MGM’s offer to its streaming service Prime Video, but the company has not said anything concrete about this yet. The acquisition has yet to be approved by regulatory authorities.

The rights for the James Bond films are not wholly owned by MGM. Half of the rights are owned by EON Productions, a company founded by James Bond film director Albert R. Broccoli and still owned by his descendants. That company is known for having a rigid attitude towards the James Bond franchise. The family would be mainly interested in the release of cinema films and do not see much in streaming or, for example, a series. This raises the question of how much freedom Amazon gets to start new projects around the James Bond franchise.