“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of intellectual property in the deep catalogue that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team,” said Mike Hopkins, the senior vice-president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios. In 2017 it paid $13.7bn for the upmarket US grocer Whole Foods. It is the second-largest takeover deal ever struck by Amazon, the world’s second-largest streaming service, with 175 million global users. It has changed hands frequently and previous owners have included the drinks magnate Edgar Bronfman, the Las Vegas casino billionaire Kirk Kerkorian and CNN’s founder, Ted Turner. The famous studio has a library of 4,000 film titles and 17,000 hours of TV programming – ranging from Gone with the Wind and The Hobbit to TV hits such as The Handmaid’s Tale – that has collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmy Awards.įounded in 1924, MGM (originally known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) recorded huge success throughout the golden age of Hollywood with films ranging from The Wizard of Oz and Ben Hur to Raging Bull, Basic Instinct and The Silence of the Lambs. However, both ultimately balked at the size of the cheque Amazon was willing to write. MGM was also courted by Apple and the Sky owner, Comcast.
