Amazon has won EU antitrust approval for its $8.5bn acquisition of MGM.
The European Commission (EC) has approved unconditionally, under the EU Merger Regulation, the proposed acquisition of entertainment company MGM by Amazon Inc.
In a statement, the EC said that it concluded that the transaction will raise no competition concerns in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’).
Based on its market investigation, the European Commission said, it found that the transaction “will not significantly reduce competition” in the markets for production and supply of audiovisual content, the wholesale supply of TV channels, the retail supply of audiovisual services, the production and licensing of distribution rights to third-party distributors of films for theatrical release or the provision of marketplace services.
The European Commission, in its antitrust review, found that the overlaps between the Amazon and MGM businesses are “limited.”
“The parties are primarily active in different parts of the AV content value chain and where both parties are active, their combined market shares are low,” the commission said. It also found that MGM’s upstream activities as a producer and licensor of film and TV content “are limited compared to other market players’ activities” and that MGM’s content “cannot be considered as must-have.”
In addition, “Even in the national markets where Amazon has a sizeable market presence among video streaming platforms, the Commission found that Amazon faces strong competition from other players,” the regulator said. The commission concluded that the addition of MGM’s content into Amazon’s Prime Video offer would not have a “significant impact on Amazon’s position as a provider of marketplace services.”
