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Amazon is Set to Acquire Streaming Service Twitch for $970 Million

By Nicholas Quah
Amazon is Set to Acquire Streaming Service Twitch for $970 Million
In a dramatic turn of events, Amazon has announced that it will buy the popular video streaming site Twitch—beating Google to the punch. It was previously reported (as far back as May) that Google was in close-to-final talks with Twitch to solidify an around $1 billion acquisition, presumably to cultivate some sort of cross-fertilization with YouTube, which Google owns. But that was not to be as Amazon now looks set to buy the company for $970 million in cash, pending governmental approval.
This is yet another development in what seems to be an escalating battle between Amazon and Google. Last week, Fortune reported on Amazon’s ambitions to challenge Google’s dominance over the online advertising space. Their rivalry is historically highlighted in Brad Stone’s seminal book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Information, which shed light on an early struggle between the two tech titans to acquire and retain talent.
With this acquisition, Amazon appears to further fuel a deeper initiative into media projects—a zone in which Google has long maintain strong interest. Bezos’ company has dabbled in gaming before, with its streaming media player being considerably marketed as a mid-market gaming console. It also has a dedicated division to gaming, the Amazon Game Studios, which has acquired studios like Double Helix (known for the acclaimed Killer Instinct and Strider—and the far less acclaimedSilent Hill: Homecoming) as well as talent like Kim Swift, a former Valve developer involved in Left 4 Dead and Portal.
Amazon’s acquisition will undoubtedly be a boon for Twitch. Currently in its third year, Twitch has emerged as the undisputable leader in the game-streaming space. Boasting over a million broadcasters, over 55 million monthly visitors, and key partnerships that allows it to live-stream highly popular pro gaming competitions, Twitch is a company at the forefront of what might be a digital culture revolution.
Twitch recently ran into trouble when it imposed several controversial policy changes, the most notorious of which is an initiative to mute copyrighted music that played through the livestreams—an initiative that, if not properly implemented, could very well ruin entire viewing experiences. Nevertheless, these controversies did not deter Jeff Bezos, who seems to exhibit a firm grasp on Twitch’s vision and long-term potential.
“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon,” Bezos said in a statement. “And Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month—from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3.”

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