On May 26, Amazon bought historic Hollywood studio MGM for a whopping sum of $8.5 billion. This was Amazon’s second-biggest acquisition to date. The company’s top six acquisitions are all in disparate sectors and it continues to drive innovation through diverse business choices. Here’s a look back at the top acquisitions in the 26-year history of the books-to-everything behemoth –
- Whole Foods Market: In 2017, Amazon acquired Texas-based multinational grocery chain Whole Foods Market for a mammoth $13.7 billion. The move took the entire grocery industry by storm. It expanded Amazon’s reach at offline grocery stores and forced other players to bolster their online services. Customers could opt for 2-hour home delivery from Whole Food stores in 60 cities via Prime Now. Additionally, by offering discounts and cashback to Prime members shopping at Whole Foods, the company managed to strengthen its Prime loyalty program.
- MGM Studios: Earlier this week, the $8.5 billion deal between Amazon and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) bolstered the companies footprints in the entertainment industry. Amazon’s OTT streaming platform, Amazon Prime Video, is set to enhance its content library with hit franchises like James Bond and Rocky moving into its kitty, among a list of 4000 films and 17000 TV shows. This will throw the door open to a multitude of sequels, spin-offs, and reboots.
- Zappos: Back in 2009, Amazon shelled out $1.2 billion in acquiring shoe e-commerce giant Zappos, wooed by the latter’s customer obsession model and culture. Zappos is often credited to have set the benchmarks for customer service digitally. Adopting the Zappos model helped the company to establish customer centricity at its very core.
- Zoox: In 2020, Amazon entered the self-driving vehicle market by acquiring Zoox, a California-based autonomous vehicle start-up, for $1.2 billion. Apart from offering autonomous ride-hailing, Zoox can potentially help Amazon cut down on its delivery costs.
- Twitch: Amazon acquired Twitch, the YouTube equivalent of live-stream gaming, in 2014 for $970 million. Twitch is a dominant force in its field with over seventeen billion hours of live games watched on its website last year alone. With Twitch, Amazon bet big on the future of gaming. The company continues to make lots of money every year by integrating advertisements into these streams.
- Ring: In 2018, Amazon acquired Ring, a video doorbell maker for $839 million. Ring provides audio and camera-enabled doorbells that can work with Alexa-enabled devices such as Amazon Echo. This smart home solution takes the delivery experience up a notch, extending the e-commerce giant’s last-mile capability.