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Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

reuters.com

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Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#481

Post by nova22033 »

frankbreetz wrote: post #8

If I had to pick a single politically uniting issue, breaking up Amazon and big tech would be it. Why has this not happened yet? Is the out of power party afraid the in power party will get credit? (This has been discussed when both parties were in power) If the government can't get something with this kind of support done, I fear the road we are headed down .

If I had to pick a single politically uniting issue, breaking up Amazon and big tech would be it

Is it though? Where's the polling data suggesting a majority of people back splitting up Amazon or Google?

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#482

Post by cableshaft »

waynesonfire wrote: post #359
divs1210 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THIS. Forcing consumers to sign up to 10 platforms to watch 10 movies will no doubt lead to a shift back to torrents. YouTube is pretty good in this regard, as it allows paying for renting a single movie for a weekend for a reasonable price.

I wish we had the data on this but I suspect a customer only selects a one or two video platforms and _MAYBE_ juggles a third when a hot show like GoT shows up, which is rare. There is a limited number of attention hours, it doesn't make sense to be on 10 platforms. Regardless, the end game of these streaming services is probably going to be consolidation or partners, if it makes since because the market is too dilut…

Yep, Netflix and Amazon Prime are a given for us (Netflix a bit less so lately, actually considering taking a break from it for the first time in years), and then we'll add Disney+/Hulu or HBO Now for a month or two a couple times a year.

By the way, has anyone checked out the free movies on Youtube? There's some good 80s and 90s classics on there lately. Supposedly it's with ads, but I don't see too many when I watch, certainly less than Hulu.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#483

Post by cableshaft »

sharken wrote: post #441
waynesonfire wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish we had the data on this but I suspect a customer only selects a one or two video platforms and _MAYBE_ juggles a third when a hot show like GoT shows up, which is rare. There is a limited number of attention hours, it doesn't make sense to be on 10 platforms. Regardless, the end game of these streaming services is probably going to be consolidation or partners, if it makes since because the market is too dilut…

I think you're very much on point on the number services a customer signs up for. In that light it makes perfect sense for Amazon to enhance their offering, as they are third or fourth in streaming. There never seems to be something to watch consistently on Prime at least here in Europe.

Prime is already enhanced by its delivery services, something the others can't offer. Like I had Prime already just for that and didn't really start watching shows on it much until recently.

But that being said they've definitely stepped up their Originals game lately. Last few shows we've watched on there are all excellent (Invincible, The Boys, Upload).

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#484

Post by golergka »

aero-glide2 wrote: post #431
asperous wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually are doing pretty large buybacks though: https://www.barrons.com/articles/tech-giants-have-ramped-up-... Apple recently $77B in buybacks, Alphabet $8.5B, Facebook $3.9B

They could have used that $77B to fund fusion research, carbon capture research, build private space stations and put man on Mars, but no they wanted to make their already high share price even higher.

It's a decision someone can make with their own money. Not money of their shareholders.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#485

Post by nova22033 »

jtdev wrote: post #148

I suppose Bezos and co. will use MGM to push their cultural and political narrative much like they have done with WaPo... I'm fully on the boycott Amazon program at this point, having previously been a Prime member and heavy user of Amazon/AWS/WaPo/etc.

push their cultural and political narrative much like they have done with WaPo.

WaPo is a product you pay for...Are you being forced to subscribe to the washington post?

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#486

Post by golergka »

muxator wrote: post #376
dalbasal wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically, that'd be increasing their expenses rather than capital investment. They could also, in theory, build schools in central africa. They could even pay their taxes. I think acquisitions are more likely though.

What's the most appropriate word for this? There could be many, but I am a bit tired of justifications. For me it's greediness, distillated.

That's the same honourable pursuit of self-interest that have built the modern world of abundance that we live in.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#487

Post by lotsofpulp »

darkwizard42 wrote: post #456
aero-glide2 wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could have used that $77B to fund fusion research, carbon capture research, build private space stations and put man on Mars, but no they wanted to make their already high share price even higher.

Actually a better way to think about it is that they are compensating their shareholders... That $77B that is now returned to shareholders can be spent on whatever those shareholders want. It isn't really Apple's money to begin with... kind of the issue with being a public company. Unless of course its shareholders would look at that investment as sound, which might be a stretch given Apple's lack of background in an…

> That $77B that is now returned to shareholders can be spent on whatever those shareholders want. It isn't really Apple's money to begin with... kind of the issue with being a public company.

Apple and its shareholders are the same entity when discussing “whose” money it is. If shareholders want it used to do buybacks, they vote for company leadership to do that. If they want dividends, they vote for company leadership to do that. If they want to invest in travel to Mars, they vote for leadership to do that.

Saying Apple’s money belongs to shareholders is a meaningless statement. It belongs to the collection of shareholders as a whole, who have opted to elect in leaders to decide how to spend it.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#488

Post by [deleted] »

echelon wrote: post #447
akira2501 wrote: post #432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Piracy is competition to bad content behavior. No it isn't. It's a workaround. This is an 8 billion dollar deal, there would have to be an impossible amount of piracy for it to count as "competition." This is precisely the reason why government regulation here is correct, as consumers, we don't have a lever long enough to have any real impact on the core problem. And we're just one side of the deal. These types of…

The solution is to break up big tech. Amazon shouldn't be ten companies in one. Google shouldn't be able to set web and mobile standards, then reap ad monies by forcing everyone to accept their anticompetitive changes. Apple shouldn't be the sole guardian of iPlatform. You can't have a protection racket on 50% of all commerce (phones >> gaming consoles) and enforce what gets put on the device. These companies don't h…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#489

Post by simonh »

andy_ppp wrote: post #188
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #23

So what we're seeing is a repeat of the film industry from 1930's-1950's. You want to see a Paramount movie, you must go to a Paramount theater. Today you want to watch an Apple show you must go to Apple's VOD. We could really use laws that force, once again, some sort of separation between production and distribution. Better stuff gets made in this kind of ecosystem.

I still think DRM should be banned and paying for content should be super cheap - say per movie $1 for HD file download and $2 for a 4k version. For me I'd literally spend hundreds of dollars per year on content that I can own going forward. The funniest thing of course is I bet the studios would make more money than trying to charge me $4.99 to rent movies and absurd sums to "buy" them...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if reducing the price of a blockbuster flick by 50% only increased it's audience by 10%.

Re: Amazon acquires MGM for $8.5B

#490

Post by fakedang »

carschno wrote: post #445
geodel wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel like I am swimming in an ocean of never ending content produced with the same recipe. This is what machine learning, pattern recognition will get us. I watched one show in Amazon prime. One shocking thing I noted besides repetitive plots every few episodes, is that one character say something and after few minutes or next episode another character spoke exactly same sentence in different situation. And it ha…

I think the machine learning part in that is massively exaggerated, perhaps to avoid personal responsibility. Detecting the patterns in commercially successful movies hardly requires complex pattern recognition algorithms. I would claim that most movies made in the past decades were copying ideas that had turned out to be successful earlier. Maybe machine learning can add some tiny extra on top of the recipe, but I t…

Not just the producers but the overall strategy. Right now, these media companies are competing on quantity because it's a numbers game and a marketing gimmick to showcase your "vast" collection, however mediocre.
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