FTC said to prepare possible challenge of Amazon's purchase of MGM Studios
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is said to be preparing for a potential lawsuit to challenge Amazon's (NASDAQ:AMZN) planned $8.5B acquisition of MGM Studios (OTC:MGMB).
The FTC is said to be exploring options including hiring expert witnesses and will decide in the next few weeks if it will pursue a block of the transaction, according to report from The Information.
The report comes after Dealreporter earlier this month said the MGM/Amazon deal will likely to take a while to wrap up as the FTC continues to pore over it for antitrust concerns.
The deal raised antitrust issues because of the vast content library held by MGM - including not only the James Bond film franchise but also Rocky and The Pink Panther, along with some 17,000 TV shows. Opponents of the deal note that an Amazon Prime Video library of more than 55,000 titles would dwarf Netflix's trove of nearly 20,000 titles, according to Dealreporter.
The MGM/Amazon deal was notified to the European Commission on Feb. 8, with a provisional deadline for a Phase I decision coming March 15.
The FTC reportedly opened a thorough investigation into Amazon's proposed film studio acquisition in July.