Amazon To Buy Movie Studio MGM For $8.45 Bln

(RTTNews) - Amazon (AMZN) agreed to buy MGM, the studio behind James Bond and Rocky, for $8.45 billion.

The deal marks Amazon's second-largest acquisition in its history, behind its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017.

The MGM deal comes amid a new round of consolidation in media. AT&T Last week announced a plan to separate its WarnerMedia operations and combine them with Discovery.

MGM has nearly a century of filmmaking history and complements the work of Amazon Studios, which has primarily focused on producing TV show programming.

Amazon said it will help preserve MGM's heritage and catalog of films, and provide customers with greater access to the existing works.

MGM has a vast catalog with more than 4,000 films, including 12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many other icons. The Catalog also includes 17,000 TV shows, including thousands of fan favorites like The Handmaid's Tale, Fargo, and Vikings.

Collectively, MGM has won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys.