Amazon completes $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM

Recently, Amazon announced that it has completed the acquisition of Hollywood film studio MGM, a deal worth $8.5 billion. Amazon issued a statement welcoming all MGM employees to join the company and that there will be no layoffs. The statement said: "We welcome MGM employees, creators and talents to Prime Video and Amazon Studios, and we look forward to working together to create more opportunities and provide high-quality content to our customers."

Two days ago, Amazon's acquisition of MGM was approved by the EU antitrust regulator. The European Commission approved the deal "unconditionally", in part because "MGM's content cannot be considered essential content." The European Commission also found in its review that the overlap between Amazon and MGM's businesses was "limited." Amazon also provided the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with all the information requested by antitrust investigators reviewing the deal.

Last May, Amazon proposed to acquire MGM. People familiar with the matter revealed that the equity value of the transaction was $6.5 billion, and the total transaction value, including debt, was $8.5 billion. Amazon hopes to inject new momentum into its streaming platform Prime Video through this transaction. MGM will provide more than 4,000 movies for Amazon Prime Video, enabling it to compete with Netflix and Walt Disney Company.

MGM is the production company of the "007" film series. It also owns the Epix cable TV channel and has produced popular programs such as "The Handmaid's Tale", "Fargo", "Vikings" and "Shark Tank".