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Amazon’s Most Notable Acquisitions to Date

Published

3 years ago

May 27, 2021

Carmen Ang

Article/Editing:

Iman Ghosh

Graphics/Design:

Harrison Schell

Most Notable Acquisitions by Amazon

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The Briefing

Amazon plans to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for $8.45 billion
This move would add 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows to Amazon Studios’ content library

Amazon’s Most Notable Acquisitions To Date

Big Tech just keeps getting bigger.

On May 26, 2021, Amazon announced its plan to acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios for $8.45 billion, making it the company’s second largest acquisition to date.

Amazon has acquired multiple companies across a variety of sectors from healthcare to entertainment, helping diversify its core revenue. In total, the tech giant has acquired or invested in over 128 different companies over the last 20 years.

Top 10 Amazon Acquisitions by Value

In 2017, Amazon paid $13.7 billion to purchase Whole Foods Market—this remains the company’s largest acquisition to date.

The Whole Foods acquisition provided brick-and-mortar space for Amazon to sell some of its flagship devices, like the Echo Dot. It also allowed Amazon to gather valuable shopping data on its customers, to better understand their offline shopping preferences.

Here’s how Amazon’s top 10 acquisitions by value stack up in comparison:

Rank	Company Acquired	Announced Date	Acquisition Value
#1	Whole Foods Market	Jun 16, 2017	$13.7 billion
#2	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	May 26, 2021	$8.5 billion
#3	Zoox	Jun 26, 2020	$1.2 billion
#4	Zappos	Jul 22, 2009	$1.2 billion
#5	Ring	Feb 27, 2018	$970 million
#6	PillPack	Jun 28, 2018	$839 million
#7	Twitch	Aug 25, 2014	$775 million
#8	Kiva Systems	Mar 19, 2012	$753 million
#9	Souq	Mar 27, 2017	$580 million
#10	Quidsi	Nov 8, 2010	$545 million

Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, the purchase of robotaxi company Zoox was Amazon’s second largest acquisition. According to their reported agreement, Amazon has the rights to use Zoox’s transport technology for ride-hailing or logistics (delivery) services.

The acquisition of MGM will add 21,000 films and TV shows to Amazon’s content library, helping Amazon keep up with the fierce competition in the content streaming industry. MGM owns the rights to “The Handmaid’s Tale” series and “Shark Tank,” as well as the James Bond and Rocky franchises.

Full List: Amazon’s Most Notable Acquisitions

While far from exhaustive, here’s a look at some of Amazon’s most notable acquisitions since 1998, as shown in the graphic:

Year	Company Acquired	Acquisition Value	Post-Acquisition Status
1998	IMDb	$55,000,000	Active under own name
1999	LiveBid.com	$300,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
1999	PlanetAll	$280,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
1999	Alexa Internet	$250,000,000	Active under own name
1999	Junglee	$250,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2008	Audible	$300,000,000	Active under own name
2009	Zappos	$1,200,000,000	Active under own name
2010	Quidsi	$545,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2011	LoveFilm	$312,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2012	Kiva Systems	$775,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2014	Twitch Interactive	$970,000,000	Active under own name
2015	Elemental Technologies	$500,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2015	Annapurna Labs	$350,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2017	Whole Foods Market	$13,700,000,000	Active under own name
2017	Souq.com	$580,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2018	Ring	$839,000,000	Active under own name
2018	PillPack	$753,000,000	Active under own name
2019	CloudEndure	$250,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2019	Eero	$97,000,000	Incorporated/defunct
2020	Zoox	$1,200,000,000	Active under own name
2021	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	$8,450,000,000	Active under own name