Amazon Buys Stories MGM Studios
Posted on 05/26/2021
Amazon.com, Inc. is buying MGM Studios (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.) for US$ 8.45 billion. This is Amazon’s second biggest deal, just behind its US$ 13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017. To give Amazon Studios a needed boost against Netflix, Amazon seeks to leverage MGM’s storied filmmaking history and wide-ranging catalog of 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows.
Amazon, Netflix, The Walt Disney Company, and other video streaming services have been looking to augment up their content libraries to win over subscribers. MGM is the home to several blockbuster franchises, including James Bond.
MGM Studios is a private company. MGM Studios has been seeking a buyer for several years. Its owners include Anchorage Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Davidson, Kempner Capital Management, Solus Alternative Asset Management, and Owl Creek Investments. These hedge fund investors took control of MGM when the studio emerged from bankruptcy in 2010.
MGM was formed in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures, and Louis B. Mayer Pictures. MGM’s corporate headquarters are located in Beverly Hills, California. MGM was acquired on September 23, 2004, by a partnership consisting of Sony Corporation of America, Comcast, Texas Pacific Group (now TPG Capital, L.P.), Providence Equity Partners, and other investors. MGM Holdings, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and 160 affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on November 3, 2010 with US$ 3.7 billion in debt.