This week Amazon completed its acquisition of iconic studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for $8.45bn. That deal is Amazon's second largest ever, just behind the $13.2bn that the e-commerce giant paid for upscale supermarket Whole Foods back in 2017.
MGM's most well known asset is undoubtedly its 50% share in the rights to the James Bond film franchise, which it shares with Eon Productions. Fans of Bond were concerned that the Amazon deal might have meant a "straight to streaming" model for 007, but assurances have been made that Bond producers will keep Bond in cinemas, as well as maintaining control over who plays the character and the creative direction of the franchise.
More stuff stuffed into Prime
For Amazon, the deal offers further proof of the company's desire to compete seriously in streaming. It will also bolster the quite eclectic range of services offered with its Amazon Prime membership.
As we wrote about last year, Prime's offer is quite a random collection of services which include free delivery, a streaming service, some music, an Amazon credit card, some discounts at Whole Foods and some other random stuff. Crucially though, only 11% of customers polled gave the streaming service as their primary reason for having Amazon Prime, the overwhelming majority (79%) were in it for that one-day delivery.
The strategy, presumably, is to offer such a wide range of services — TV, movies, e-commerce, delivery, music, groceries and more — such that consumers almost can't get away without having Prime. Already there are 175 million Amazon Prime members around the world who seemingly feel that way — and each spends significantly more on Amazon.com than non-Prime members.
