Benzinga | May 26, 2021 09:30AM EDT

Amazon Buys MGM Studios For $8.45B: What You Need To Know

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has announced its $8.45 billion acquisition of MGM Studios, giving the e-commerce giant access to one of the entertainment industry's largest film and television libraries.

What Happened: Amazon pledged to "help preserve MGM's heritage and catalog of films, and provide customers with greater access to these existing works."

This massive new infusion of content will bolster Amazon's Prime Video streaming service, which has more than 175 million customers but a much smaller content library than rivals including Walt Disney Co's (NYSE:DIS) Disney+ and ViacomCBS' (NASDAQ:VIAC) Paramount+.

"The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM's talented team," said Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. "It's very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling."

The MGM acquisition is the second largest in Amazon's history after the company paid $13.7 billion in 2017 to acquire Whole Foods.

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What It Involves: Amazon will now have access to approximately 4,000 films, including MGM's post-1986 releases and titles from the United Artists, Polygram and Orion libraries; these include the James Bond, "Rocky," "Pink Panther" and "Robocop" franchises.

Amazon will also access 17,000 TV shows produced by MGM Television, including "Shark Tank," "Fargo," "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Vikings." Many of MGM's titles and recent releases can be seen on the company's Epix Now streaming service, but the announcement of the acquisition did not raise the question of whether Epix Now would continue or be folded.

The transaction does not include the pre-1986 MGM library, which includes classics such as "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone with the Wind." Those titles are owned by WarnerMedia, a subsidiary of AT&T (NYSE:T), which recently announced a merger of these assets with Discovery Communications (NASDAQ:DISCA).

(Daniel Craig as James Bond in MGM's 007 franchise. Photo courtesy MGM.)