By the time Westchester moviegoers have fully recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic and again sit down in their plush theater seats with popcorn and soft drinks in hand and get ready to feel the excitement as Leo the Lion once again roars to introduce an MGM movie, there will be something different: it will be retailing giant Amazon that is Leo”™s new trainer.
Amazon and MGM today announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Amazon will acquire MGM for a purchase price of $8.45 billion.
The joint announcement remarked that MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which primarily produces TV shows but also has been releasing feature films.
“MGM has a vast catalog with more than 4,000 films as well as 17,000 TV shows that have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys,” said Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios said.
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP (intellectual property) in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM”™s talented team. It”™s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”
In a complicated series of transactions, the library of MGM”™s classic films was acquired by entrepreneur Ted Turner who used it as the basis for his cable channel Turner Classic Movies, which launched in 1994. More recent, MGM and United Artists films remained with the surviving MGM movie studio operations.
Kevin Ulrich, chairman of the board at MGM said, “I am very proud that MGM”™s Lion, which has long evoked the Golden Age of Hollywood, will continue its storied history, and the idea born from the creation of United Artists lives on in a way the founders originally intended, driven by the talent and their vision. The opportunity to align MGM”™s storied history with Amazon is an inspiring combination.”
Completion of this transaction is subject to regulatory approvals
