Nearly $8.5 billion! Amazon completed the second largest merger in history, taking MGM into its pocket

Following the acquisition of Whole Foods, the largest organic food chain in the United States, in 2017, Amazon's business empire has added another player.

On Thursday, local time, Amazon announced the completion of the acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), with a transaction value of $8.45 billion, and the transaction also became the second largest merger in Amazon's history.

Upon completion of the transaction, MGM will join Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Studios, managed by Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Amazon Studios. Amazon said in a statement that it would not make any layoffs to MGM.

Hopkins said: "MGM has been producing outstanding entertainment programs for nearly a century, and we share their commitment to delivering a large number of original movies and TV shows to audiences around the world. ”

Continue to expand the film and television territory

Los Angeles-based MGM, founded in 1924, is one of the eight largest hollywood studios. Since its inception, it has produced and distributed more than 4,000 films and 17,000 hours of TELEVISION programs.

The classic spy movie "007" is from MGM. Since the first one was released in 1962, the "007" film series has swept the world, lasting more than 60 years, during which time it has gone through 6 Bond and 25 large-scale investments, making it one of the highest-grossing movies in Hollywood.

In addition, many classic movies such as "Tom and Jerry", "Gone with the Wind", "Twelve Angry Men", "Silence of the Lambs" and "The Wizard of Oz", as well as popular dramas such as "Ice Storm", "The Handmaid's Tale", "Viking Legends", "The Voice of America", "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills", "Survivor" and other popular reality shows are all from MGM.

MGM also initiated the establishment of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and launched the Academy Awards. His films have won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmy Awards to date.

By pocketing MGM's massive amount of high-quality film and television content, Amazon Prime Video will have more than 55,000 films, which will become a strong rival to Netflix, Disney and other platforms.

In addition to entering the film and television entertainment sector, Amazon has also invested heavily in the live broadcast of sports events.

Amazon struck a deal with the National Football League (NFL) last year to get the nationwide exclusive video rights to Thursday Night Football for about $1 billion a season, according to people familiar with the Wall Street Journal.

People close to the NFL and Amazon say Amazon is also considering buying the NFL's Sunday Ticket rights — which allows users to watch every game during the regular season. Satellite broadcaster DirecTV has the current broadcast rights, and its agreement expires after the 2022-2023 season.

U.S. regulators have not stopped investigating and are still facing antitrust risks in the future

Such a large merger is bound to attract the attention of regulators, and from the time the acquisition was announced in May last year, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and EU regulators reviewed the transaction for a long time for antitrust considerations.

On Tuesday, local time, the EUROPEAN Antitrust Commission approved the deal, saying its investigation found that the deal "will not significantly reduce" competition in the relevant video market.

Still, the FTC is investigating the deal.

Prior to this, Amazon confirmed to the FTC that it had provided all the information requested by antitrust investigators.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a person familiar with the matter said that once the necessary documents are provided, the FTC's review period begins, and now that the review period is over, Amazon is free to push the deal forward.

Amazon has provided more than 3 million documents to the FTC over the past 8 months as part of the review process, people familiar with the matter said.

Even after the review period has passed, the committee can later challenge the acquisition if a majority of ftc members agree.

The committee, which is made up of 5 members, 2 Democrats and 2 Republicans, still has a vacancy, the Senate is still pending, and the committee vote is deadlocked.

An FTC spokesperson noted that the committee "may challenge the transaction at any time if it finds it violates the law."

Separately, Lina Khan, the chairman of the committee nominated by Biden, has long been an outspoken critic of Amazon.

In 2017, Khan, who was still a law student at Yale University, published a legal review expressing concern about Amazon's market influence and arguing that the government had failed to impose restrictions on the company.

Khan later served as legal counsel on congressional antitrust committees, which led a 16-month investigation into four tech companies, including Amazon.

Last summer, Amazon filed a motion asking Khan to recuse himself from an antitrust-related investigation into the company, a request that Khan rejected, saying there was no basis for recusal on both financial and private issues.