Amazon Puts MGM in Shopping Cart, Doubling Down on Hollywood

Amazon’s $8.45 billion purchase of MGM signals, for Hollywood, just how much video streaming has reshaped the entertainment landscape. Tech-driven companies are taking more of Hollywood’s real estate while older players, like WarnerMedia and Discovery, join forces so as to better compete. But does the deal mean much for Amazon, the e-commerce-cloud-computing-everything-else-in-the-world conglomerate? 

Not on the most obvious metrics. Amazon spent nearly twice as much money to buy Whole Foods in 2017 and laid out several billion dollars more on capital expenditures in the first quarter alone than what MGM is costing. Amazon’s press release seemed designed to send a “this is not a big deal” signal: It quoted Mike Hopkins, a senior vice president, whereas the Whole Foods purchase announcement prominently featured a quote from CEO Jeff Bezos.