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Amazon completes its $8.5B acquisition of MGM
- buu700 5y agoThe title is kind of misleading. I was all excited to find out what kind of vision Amazon had for a chain of hotels. I wonder how a tech-enhanced Amazon Mandalay Bay would fare against the Black Hat crowd.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bsimpson 5y agoMGM is first and foremost a film studio. Metro, Goldwyn, and Meyer were film producers in the 1910s who merged to form MGM in 1924. Kirk Kerkorian was a Vegas developer who bought MGM in 1969, and use its films to theme the MGM Grand hotel. (He also bought United Artists, founded by Charlie Chaplin and friends as a contemporary of Metro, Goldwyn, and Meyer.) Kirk sold the film studio to Ted Turner in 1986, spinning off the hotel-casino business as MGM Grand.
- bitlax 5y agoDoes that include the casinos?
- dna_polymerase 5y agoNo, these are entirely different entities: https://investors.mgmresorts.com/investors/news-releases/press-release-details/2010/MGM-Resorts-International-and-MGM-Studios-Are-Not-Affiliated-Companies/default.aspx https://investors.mgmresorts.com/investors/news-releases/pre...
- bitlax 5y agothanks
- vips7L 5y agoHoping for some new Stargate now that Amazon has MGM!
- forgingahead 5y agoMore SG1-type series, less Universe-ones...
- unemphysbro 5y agoi agree; universe was a little too bleak, which was trendy at the time. we need something campy and fun.
- jatone 5y agofor the love of god upbeat scifi please. I can't take the dystopian themes anymore. I need escapism damnit.
- jerf 5y agoThis is my biggest concern with anybody (not just Amazon) trying to extend Stargate SG-1. I want more Stargate. Not a sudden dystopian nightmare, or dour bleak exploration of this or that, or gutting Stargate to write some other show wearing Stargate on the outside (e.g., "It's Game of Thrones, but Stargate!"). It's not even that those things are bad. I've watched and enjoyed some of them. It's just that I know where to get them and I've got enough of them right now.
- Geritio 5y agoI would happyly watch a Stargate which connects to parallel universes to keep the fun and curios and action part alive. It can then become a gateway for stories like sliders and less coherent. Similar to black mirror.
- ethbr0 5y agoBabylon 5 is the most upbeat my suspension of disbelief allows for. > LM: ...It is good to have friends, is it not, Mr. Garibaldi? Even if maybe only for a little while? > MG: Even if only for a little while.
- imdsm 5y agoBring on the new Stargate!
- Alex3917 5y agoYou would think that a motto like Ars Gratia Artis would automatically disqualify a company from being a culture fit for Amazon.
- bsedlm 5y agoah, it's not such a bad fit, just tweak it into: Profit for Profit's sake
- notacoward 5y ago"Lucrum pro lucri (causa)" in case anyone was wondering.
- lanstin 5y agoArt for profits sake?
- some_random 5y agoYou would think that Google wouldn't be Like That with "Don't be Evil" as their motto, yet
- 535188B17C93743 5y agoDidn't they explicitly (but quietly) get rid of it several years ago? Edit: I think this [1] is what I was thinking about. [1] https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-dont-be-evil-from-1826153393 https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-do...
- notacoward 5y agoBut what is evil, really? When financial success is equated with virtue, as is far too often the case nowadays (especially in the US), then "don't be evil" means "don't be poor" and they certainly try to abide by that.
- xiphias2 5y ago
- Dave3of5 5y agoI'll echo I'd love to see a new stargate series. Maybe take off from where universe left us ? Another team gates to the Destiny.
- technofiend 5y agoOh yeah that would be amazing. Stargate sort of like Sliders really enjoyed a huge universe of possibilities because they can literally go anywhere. Would love to see it revisited with Amazon's budget!
- nly 5y agoWow, Sliders... that show was great until they replaced every single character Also we learn from episode 1 that wormhole travel is better than sex ;)
- TMWNN 5y agoI'm pretty sure that Amazon bought MGM to prevent Bezos from being the next James Bond villain. (Not him specifically, but a bald man described as an "Internet mogul" who is "the richest person on Earth" with "tentacles in every aspect of daily life", and is now "building his own private space program".)
- bryanrasmussen 5y agoI don't think MGM has secured any of the distribution rights to Bond going forward, but I could be wrong - it's a pretty complicated area.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- steve76 5y ago
- snarf21 5y agoIt is so sad that the FTC and SEC have completely failed us in the 21st century. Shareholder value above all else.
- MaxMoney 5y ago
- relueeuler 5y agoHow did they fail you?
- tcook_sucks_xie 5y agothey created a american oligarchy thats as bad as the russian one justify it how ever you want, same result
- sebazzz 5y agoDid they create the oligarchy or are they a teethless tiger because of it?
- rosndo 5y agoYou have no fucking idea what you are talking about. My wife had to flee Russia at 14 because a rival oligarch decided to try and force her father to sign over his business. 3 employees of theirs, including her personal driver, were shot and killed as part of an intimidation campaign. Really, fuck you. This doesn’t happen in America, there is no equivalency here.
- stingraycharles 5y agoI have no opinion on this matter, but I assume the parent implies that those agencies should not have approved this deal.
- MichaelMoser123 5y agoin the sense that some corporation is turning into the real world equivalent of the fictional Buy N Large from the movie Wall-E
- lifefeed 5y agoIt'll be amazing to have all those old, great movies freely available on streaming. Half the reason I have HBO Go is for TCM, and I assume that will be moving to Prime soon.
- fredoralive 5y agoThe pre-1986 MGM library is owned by Warner Bros. via its purchase of Turner Entertainment, not MGM itself thanks to some interesting financial manoeuvres by Ted Turner in the mid-80s. So old MGM films are probably staying on TCM. MGM does also hold other libraries like post-1952 United Artists films and Orion pictures films as well though.
- edmcnulty101 5y agoSo Amazon does physical goods, has AWS, has digital goods like MGM and Prime. It's literally eating the world. Everything will just be Amazon at some point.
- vishnugupta 5y ago> Everything will just be Amazon at some point. It is almost there. When AWS has a blip most of the popular apps/products stop working, including my Roomba
- HWR_14 5y agoWhy would your Roomba connect to anything? It's supposed to be an autonomous timed launch, so you don't even need to launch it.
- ptudan 5y agoThat's just one way to use the Roomba, I don't think it's "supposed" to be anything. Most have an app that lets you press a button to start it, presumably that app and the base station all connect through AWS
- HWR_14 5y agoIf it's just a more convenient way to push a button on the Roomba (or avoid waiting for the timer) than the statement that a bunch of products stopped working was pretty misleading.
- wenc 5y agoFor Roomba specifically, this is not true. It doesn’t stop working. The app stops working yes but there’s a button on the machine you can press to start a job. It’s the same deal with my Anova sous vide circulator, my Nest etc. Their apps requires cloud access yes. But all of them can function without it. source: Roomba 675 / Anova / Nest owner.
- andrew_ 5y ago
- throw0101a 5y agoEven more concentration of (media) industry.
- dmitriid 5y agoWhelp, Netflix is now finally and completely screwed. Not that it isn't screwed already, but it's hanging in there by a thin thread.
- gadflyinyoureye 5y agoNah, Netflix will make another show where all the depth of their characters is solely which letter of the Alphabet gang they align with. This is Terry. Ze’s a bad ass cause ze’s non-binary-bi.
- BaseballPhysics 5y agoI find it interesting that Amazon is pursuing vertical integration while elsewhere in the media industry we see companies like AT&T doing the exact opposite. It'll be interesting to see if, ten years from now, Amazon is any more successful. So far, it's not been clear that this kind of integration is, in fact, a net benefit for the acquirers, and it certainly doesn't benefit consumers.
- vl 5y agoTo be fair, Amazon is integrating everything they can everywhere in the business forever. I think in Bezos’ mindset end game is one MegaAmazon owning entire planet. Like Universal Paperclips.
- BaseballPhysics 5y agoSure, it's a modern conglomerate. That's nothing new. Conglomerates have been around for literally a hundred-plus years. What's fascinating is that the traditional industrial conglomerate has been declining for decades now, with the most notable recent breakup being GE. Meanwhile, tech companies are going the other way: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/11/23/1057446470/the-conglomerate-paradox-as-ge-splinters-facebook-becomes-meta https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/11/23/1057446470/the... I think it's a wide open question as to whether the conglomerate is, in fact, an economically efficient entity, or if in the long run, Amazon, too, will break up. I'd argue the only reason modern tech conglomerates exist and succeed is because antitrust regulators have failed to recognize the impact they've had in destroying a competition. As a result, these modern conglomerates aren't making money via the standard argument: increased efficiencies, market diversification, etc. Rather, they're profitable because they're leveraging their horizontal and vertical integration to monopolize whole industries. If world governments return to a more forceful anti-trust regime, I suspect we'll find these tech conglomerates will die off just like their ancestor industrial conglomerates have been.
- wenc 5y agoAmericans maybe aren’t used to thinking in terms of conglomerates because there are only a handful of visible ones here but conglomerates are pretty common all over Asia where a single company has holding in a diverse number of industries (eg Samsung cars, Hyundai real estate etc). There are structural reasons for the existence of conglomerates outside of diversification and expansion into adjacent markets. I think your last statement is debatable (that it doesn’t benefit consumers). It really depends — we assume that conglomerate companies will bulldoze the competition with impunity because they’re cross subsidized but in real life this isn’t always true especially if one takes a global view instead of a domestic one.
- bastardoperator 5y agoDoes this mean Amazon owns Vegas now too?
- dmoy 5y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30711781 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30711781
- throwaway123x2 5y agoAfter the crap that was Wheel of Time, they probably need it.
- manishsharan 5y agoI actually be enjoyed watching "wheeel of time" with my kids. Family friendly fantasy shows are so rare.
- imbnwa 5y agoNote to self: a bunch of pretty 20-somethings can't save your script if the audience is given little reason to care about anyone on screen. Netflix and Amazon keep trying to manufacture their own cash cow, Game-of-Thrones level show but refuse to invest both the money and (slightly more so) due diligence that HBO does.
- thfuran 5y agoWheel of Time was not a low-budget show.
- smegger001 5y agobut it looked like one
- rg111 5y agoBosch was a really good one. Will recommend it. It is among all-time-bests, I will say. Tales from The Loop was unique and dream-like. I liked it for being so original. Wheel of Time bloopers made me feel like it was "manufactured TV". So, didn’t watch it. I hated Amazon for killing Mozart in The Jungle.
- throwaway123x2 5y agoOo I just started reading the Bosch series, am excited to pick up the show when I'm done!
- munificent 5y agoDoes anti-trust just no longer exist as a concept? How big are we going to let companies get?
- falcolas 5y agoN + 1 for N at the time of evaluation. It has to be particularly gregarious, or involve the EU, to get knocked down in this day and age.
- sebazzz 5y agoCan tell the EU any company that operates in their market not to merge?
- falcolas 5y agoTo my understanding, the EU can prevent the merger of the subsidiaries of the companies that are based out of the EU, which effectively craters multinational company merges. That said, the EU apparently explicitly approve this particular merger. So that kind of invalidates the EU as an exception.
- shrikant 5y agoEgregious?
- rosndo 5y agoWhy would Amazon buying MGM ever have been an antitrust issue? I’d understand the concern if Amazon was buying Walmart or Ebay, but for MGM you’ll have to further explain your understanding of antitrust laws.
- basch 5y agoIt would be a concern in a world that said it was illegal to own a streaming service and content. The government would have to force divestiture of all content libraries from all the conglomerates.
- stjohnswarts 5y agoAmazon MGM streaming now available! chucks amazon prime video into the dumpster