The European Commission has unconditionally approved, on Tuesday 15 March, the proposed acquisition of MGM Holdings Inc. (‘MGM’) by Amazon.com Inc. (‘Amazon’): the transaction between these two US companies does not raise any competition concerns in the European Economic Area.
Amazon is active in various sectors, including retail, consumer electronics and technology services, as well as in the (co-)production and retailing of its own and third-party audiovisual content through Prime Video. MGM is an entertainment company that produces and distributes audiovisual content.
The European Commission concluded that the transaction, as notified, would not significantly reduce competition in the markets for: - the production and supply of audiovisual content; - the wholesale supply of television channels; - the retail supply of audiovisual services; - the production of films for theatrical release and the licensing of their distribution to third party distributors; - the provision of marketplace services. These markets are found to be likely national in scope.
The European Commission examined (https://aeur.eu/f/s7 ) the horizontal overlaps between the activities of Amazon and MGM in the audiovisual content value chain. It found that the overlaps between Amazon and MGM are limited. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)