On March 18, 2022, Amazon officially closed its $8.5 billion purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The deal had been hanging in regulatory limbo for months. European authorities cleared it first, deciding the merger would not significantly reduce competition in their markets. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission then let it proceed without a legal challenge. Amazon certified compliance with all necessary documentation to the FTC earlier this month, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deadline for a potential FTC challenge came and went. The deal was done.
This is Amazon’s second-largest corporate acquisition since 2017. Only the $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market was bigger. That tells you something. Amazon is not a media company dabbling in retail. It is a retail and logistics giant that sees entertainment as a way to lock in Prime subscribers. Prime Video is the hook. The MGM library is the bait.
MGM brings more than 4,000 film titles and over 17,000 television episodes into Amazon’s ecosystem. That includes characters like Rocky and RoboCop. Amazon said in a blog post that it plans to use this library to create new movies and shows featuring those famous characters. The goal is to complement the existing work of Amazon Studios and Prime Video. The practical effect is clear: more exclusive content for Prime members, less reason to subscribe to Netflix or Disney+.
The streaming wars are expensive. Netflix spends billions on original content. Disney+ has the Marvel and Star Wars vaults. Amazon needed a deep catalog of its own. MGM gives it that. Not just old movies, but a production engine. MGM has been making films for nearly a century. That infrastructure, those relationships, that institutional knowledge — Amazon bought all of it.
Some analysts expected the FTC to fight harder. The agency has been more aggressive under the Biden administration. But Amazon’s compliance paperwork was thorough, and the deal had already passed muster in Europe. The FTC had until mid-March to file a legal challenge. It did not. That does not mean regulators are happy about it. It means they could not find a solid legal argument to stop it.
The acquisition reshapes the streaming landscape in a straightforward way. Amazon now has three distinct content streams: its own Amazon Studios productions, the MGM catalog, and the licensed content it already had. That is a lot of hours of television and film. For Prime members, the value proposition strengthens. Pay one annual fee, get fast shipping, music streaming, and a growing library of movies. For Amazon, the math is simple. More content means more subscribers. More subscribers mean more recurring revenue. More revenue means more leverage against competitors.
Disney+ and Netflix will not stand still. Both have their own deep catalogs and aggressive production schedules. But Amazon has something they do not: a massive retail operation that can absorb losses in streaming. Prime Video does not need to be profitable on its own. It just needs to keep people paying for Prime. MGM helps with that.
The deal also signals something about Amazon’s long-term ambitions. The company is not just buying movies. It is buying intellectual property. Characters like Rocky can spawn sequels, spin-offs, merchandise, and theme park attractions. Amazon does not have theme parks, but it does have a marketplace where it can sell Rocky-branded everything. The vertical integration is real.
Regulatory scrutiny will likely continue. Amazon’s size alone invites attention. But for now, the company has what it wanted. MGM’s 4,000 films and 17,000 TV episodes are now part of Prime Video. The streaming wars just got more expensive for everyone else.
