Amazon has approached movie theater chain AMC to discuss a potential acquisition deal, according to a report from British newspaper The Daily Mail. These early-stage discussions may or may not result in a deal, said the Mail’s anonymous insider sources, and it is unclear whether or not they are ongoing. In other words, AMC may be left without an Amazon deal in the end.
There is no doubt that AMC’s shareholders would welcome a buyout at this point. AMC’s market cap has plunged 50% lower in the last 52 weeks and 80% lower in three years. The company was battling the rise of online streaming services when the COVID-19 crisis arrived, closing the doors to movie theaters around the world and pausing AMC’s only real revenue stream.
The company is the latest target on Amazon’s hit list as it looks to take advantage of the coronavirus crisis, which has left many major firms in need of rescue.
Amazon is understood to have held talks about running the National Lottery in recent months and is said to be eyeing a takeover of satellite company OneWeb, the British firm backed by Sir Richard Branson, which filed for bankruptcy in March in the US.
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 as an online bookstore, but has since grown it into one of the world’s largest companies, with a number of giant divisions.
It is now the world’s best-known shopping site, it has a huge cloud computing business and a popular video service, and even produces its own films and television shows through Amazon Studios.
It became the first streaming service to win an Oscar in 2017 for its movie Manchester By The Sea, starring Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams.
Full Content: Daily Mail
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