EU Approves Amazon's $8.45 Bln MGM Deal

(RTTNews) - Officials at the European Union have okayed unreservedly Amazon Inc.'s (AMZN) $8.45 billion bid to acquire movie and TV studio MGM. The European Commission's anti-trust regulators ruled that there was limited overlap between the companies and that the merger would not reduce competition in the field of theatrical film and audio-visual content markets.

In a statement, the European Commission said, "The Commission found that MGM's upstream activities as a producer and licensor of AV content are limited compared to other market players' activities. MGM's content cannot be considered as must-have; and a wide variety of alternative content exists."

The Commission said that MGM's movies make up for a limited share of box office revenue in the European Economic Area and that "overall MGM is not among the top production studios, despite it having produced several franchises like James Bond. The deal still requires the green light from the Federal Trade Commission before it can be closed. Recent reports suggested the FTC was planning to challenge the merger with an anti-trust lawsuit. However, this move requires a majority vote by commissioners. At present, the FTC has two Democrat and two Republican commissioners.

According to reports, while they have reached upon a bipartisan consensus on some issues, a vote on an Amazon-MGM suit could be cutting across along party lines. The deadline for a decision on the proposed MGM buyout is fast approaching, say sometime in the middle of March. If the FTC doesn't cause any legal challenges, Amazon can go ahead with the merger.