James Bond, Meet Jeff Bezos: Amazon Makes $8.45 Billion Deal for MGM

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, while diminished, commanded a premium price, with Amazon seeking to bolster its crucial Prime membership offering.

LOS ANGELES — In the ultimate symbol of one Hollywood era ending and another beginning, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, home to James Bond and Rocky, finally found a buyer willing to pay retail: Amazon. The e-commerce giant said on Wednesday that it would acquire the 97-year-old film and television studio for $8.45 billion — or about 40 percent more than other prospective buyers, including Apple and Comcast, thought MGM was worth. The studio, which had been shopped around for months, was once home to “more stars than the heavens,” as Louis B. Mayer liked to brag. But its vast production lot and pre-1986 film library were sold off decades ago. (Sony Pictures now occupies the lot, and Warner Bros. owns classic MGM films like “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Wizard of Oz,” and “Gone With the Wind.”) MGM does come with one Hollywood crown jewel: James Bond.