Amazon rumoured to buy MGM Studios for $11 billion

James Bond will never be the same again, with rumours of a massive multibillion-dollar deal reaching feverish levels in Hollywood.

Amazon is in talks to buy famed movie studio MGM for a rumoured $11.5 billion ($US9 billion), according to a report in industry publication Variety.

MGM is one of Hollywood’s oldest studios. It was established in 1924 and was also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. Variety reported late last year the company was exploring a sale.

MGM has a library of 4000 films and 17,000 episodes of TV, which makes it an enticing prospect for a streaming company from the tech sector looking to boost its archives of older movies and TV titles.

The shiniest jewel in the MGM crown is the James Bond franchise, which has 25 movies including the upcoming No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s final outing as the British spy.

MGM is also home to The Hobbit, Rocky/Creed, Pink Panther, Legally Blonde and RoboCop franchises while other classics include Four Weddings And A Funeral and The Magnificent Seven. Its TV library includes The Handmaid’s Tale, Fargo and Stargate SG-1.

It also owns a number of lucrative reality TV franchises such as The Voice, Survivor, Shark Tank and The Real Housewives.

If Amazon buys MGM, it will own the James Bond franchise.

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Earlier, MGM’s value had been pegged at around $US5 billion. The rumoured $US9 billion price tag could indicate there are several suitors for the company.

Variety and The Information reported that chatter of an MGM sale to Amazon had escalated this past weekend with the deal said to be negotiated between Amazon Studios and Prime Video senior vice president Mike Hopkins and MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich.

Streaming has opened up as a new front in the rivalry between legacy movie studios with MGM competitors Disney, Universal, Warner Bros and Paramount all launching their own services Disney+, Peacock, HBO Max and Paramount+ respectively.

MGM is home to the Rocky and Creed franchise.

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Newer entrants in the entertainment space, tech companies such as Netflix, Amazon and Apple, have deep pockets to commission original content but have to licence older library titles, the latter of which are increasingly locked up behind studios’ own services.

Acquiring MGM’s library is an immediate injection of content for a tech company while also giving them the rights to future box office hits such as any future James Bond movie.

Amazon spent $US11 billion on TV, movies and music for its Prime Video service in 2020. Today, the company announced seven new commissions in Australia and said it was investing $150 million in Australian content and industry.

While the $US9 billion price tag seems steep, it’s a small fraction of recent media company acquisitions, such as the $US71.3 billion Disney paid for 20th Century Fox in 2019.

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