Amazon gets green signal to buy MGM film studio

Nothing stands in the way of one of the major acquisitions that Amazon has been pushing for quite some time. The European Commission has now given the green light for the acquisition of the MGM film studio. Amazon Prime Video has been unable to distinguish itself from its competitors Netflix and Disney for some time now with exclusive productions. While there is certainly content that gives the service its unique selling proposition, it hardly has any traction with the public.

This will change with the takeover of the well-known film studio. Amazon plans to invest $8.5 billion in the acquisition. And after investigation, the European competition authorities have no objection to the purchase. Because for the most part Amazon and MGM would be active in different parts of the audiovisual content value chain. Although there are overlaps in some areas, there is no risk of the merger leading to a dominant position.

competition is quite severe

According to the assessment from Brussels, there are individual markets where Amazon has achieved a significant increase in market power through the acquisition, but there are also strong competitors, so it is quite unlikely that the merger of the two companies could lead to a monopoly position.

Netflix remains the leader among streaming services. Amazon is in second place in terms of user numbers. However, the values ​​are only comparable to a limited extent, as Netflix or Disney+ only gains subscribers for their streaming offers. At Amazon, on the other hand, there is only the large combo package Prime, which also includes various other services, including music streaming and better service with order delivery.