Amazon acquired MGM not for filmmaking but for its intellectual property catalog

Evidence

Like those of other heirs who are now key nodal points in the network of filmmaking on the margins of Hollywood, Megan Ellison’s decisions loom large and often have ties to financial firms. Annapurna works primarily with directors signed to CAA, the famed talent agency acquired by TPG in 2014, which has since been assembled into a vertically integrated “shadow studio,” as discussed above. Annapurna has worked closely with The Weinstein Company, bankrolled by Goldman Sachs. Another of Annapurna’s partners is MGM, the once iconic studio that was taken over by PE firms in 2004, filed for bankruptcy in 2010, sold to a different consortium of PE firms, and has since been acquired by Amazon. Commenting on this deal, the world’s wealthiest man, Jeff Bezos, explained that the objective of the acquisition was not cinematic opportunities, but MGM’s “deep catalog of much beloved intellectual property.” — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 276

Categorization

• SEED: Bezos’ explicit confession that MGM was bought for ‘catalog of intellectual property’ is the smoking-gun quote for the whole finance-to-form thesis: content libraries are the asset class, which reshapes what studios greenlight. This is the load-bearing evidence for Part Two.