Deal Now Complete: Amazon Acquires Twitch for $970 Million

According to a new SEC filing, Amazon’s buyout of online video game streaming company Twitch is now complete. The acquisition, worth $970 million and first revealed in late August, marks Amazon’s largest and most expensive deal to date. This follows earlier reports that suggested a similar deal was in the works with Google subsidiary YouTube. Twitch touts more than 55 million active monthly users, and is currently the largest live-streaming website in the U.S. by a significant margin.

“Twitch users are able to stream video game sessions in real time,” reports ZDNet. “One of the most well-known examples of a game hosted on Twitch is ‘Twitch plays Pokemon,’ a social experiment in which thousands of users all contributed to playing the game simultaneously. The company estimates that in total, over one million people participated and the stream accounted for 55 million views.”

Twitch

The company recently expanded its efforts beyond gaming to include streaming concerts. Twitch is expected to help Amazon become more of a multimedia company; it will join Amazon’s book publishing, video streaming and game production.

Amazon has been making a “push into the game industry,” explains GameSpot. “Earlier this year, it hired designers who worked on ‘Portal’ and ‘Far Cry,’ and purchased ‘Killer Instinct’ developer Double Helix Games.”

Mike Frazzini, VP of Amazon Game Studios, described the team at Twitch as “an awesome fit with Amazon’s culture,” a key element that reportedly prompted the buyout.

According to a thank you post to the Twitch community from CEO Emmett Shear: “We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.”

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