My name is Bond, James Bond. Yes, You heard it right. But we are not going to discuss James Bond movies. We are going to share the news related to MGM Studios, the major Hollywood movie studio that made the James Bond series. The studio has been acquired by Amazon for $8.45 billion. This is the second major acquisition(value-wise) after Whole Foods that was bought by Amazon for $13.7 billion. MGM Studies also owns the popular movie series Rocky.
Here is the list of 10 key acquisitions by Amazon and their key facts:
1. Whole Foods: $13.7 billion
Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017. This is the biggest acquisition made by Amazon till now. The retail giant bought the brick-and-mortar retail infrastructure for $13.7 billion. Amazon integrated Whole Foods with its online business to provide quality service to its customers. Whole Foods also helped Amazon to establish itself in the grocery business.
2. MGM Studios: $8.45 billion
MGM Studios is the second-biggest acquisition done by Amazon yesterday. The tech giant invested $8.45 billion to buy the popular movie studio.
This deal will provide famous movies and shows for Amazon Prime users.
MGM is also quite happy with this deal due to the high value. Earlier, MGM was valued at around $5.5 billion but Amazon bought it for $8.5 billion.
But, Amazon officials are also satisfied with the deal amount. Talking about the same, Mike Hopkins, senior vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said:
“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalogue that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team. It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”
3. Zappos: $1.2 billion
Zappis, thee online shoe retailer, was one of the most popular firms when Amazon bought it in 2009 with a whopping amount of $1.2 billion. Zappos created a niche for itself due to better customer experience and unique culture.
In 2009, the deal was originally valued at $807 million. But, it reached a valuation of $1.2 billion at the time of official completion due to the Amazon share price surge.
4. Zoox: $1.2 billion
On June 26, 2020, Amazon acquired Zoox with a deal of $1.2 billion. Zoox, a self-driving startup, was founded in 2014 and has raised around $1 billion in different financing round. The startup works on autonomous driving technology. In the same year, Amazon’s market cap surged to $1.5 trillion.
5. PillPack: $1 billion
To strengthen its operations in the health sector, Amazon acquired PillPack with a whopping amount of $1 billion in June 2018. The startup is a popular online pharmacy to delivers drugs to consumers. The firm has a license to deliver medicines in the entire US.
6. Ring: $1.2 billion
Ring is known for manufacturing smart home security items like wifi doorbells, automatic cameras, etc. In 2018, Amazon acquired Ring for $1.2 billion. As per financial experts estimates, Ring was worth up to $1.8 billion at that time.
7. Twitch: $970 million
Twitch is one of the strategic acquisitions done by Amazon to establish itself in the online gaming industry. In 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch with $970 million. The online gaming streaming firm’s acquisition helped Amazon in earning good revenue due to the surge in the electronic gaming sector.
8. Kiva Systems: $775 million
In 2012, Amazon bought Kiva Systems that provides automation and robotics solutions to its clients. The deal was closed with an amount of $775 million. Before acquiring the firm, Amazon was using Kiva’s products and services as a client. Now, Kiva products are known as Amazon Robotics.
9. Souq: $580 Million
In 2017, when Amazon acquired Souq.com, it was the biggest e-commerce firm in the middle east. The acquisition helped Amazon to establish itself in middle east countries. Amazon never revealed the acquisition deal amount but experts believe that it was worth $580 million to $650 million.
10. Quidsi: $545 million
Amazon bought Quidsi in 2011 for $500 million, and also assumed the latter’s $45 million debt obligations. This was the biggest acquisition of Amazon in 2011. Quidsi had a portfolio of e-commerce sites including Diapers.com, BeautyBar.com, and Soap.com. Amazon closed Quidsi operations in 2017.
