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Official: Amazon Acquires Twitch for $970 million in cash

NateDrake

Member
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Twitch Interactive, Inc., the leading live video platform for gamers. In July, more than 55 million unique visitors viewed more than 15 billion minutes of content on Twitch produced by more than 1 million broadcasters, including individual gamers, pro players, publishers, developers, media outlets, conventions and stadium-filling esports organizations.

“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon 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. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community.”

“Amazon and Twitch optimize for our customers first and are both believers in the future of gaming,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. “Being part of Amazon will let us do even more for our community. We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have independently. This change will mean great things for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people around the world.”

Twitch launched in June 2011 to focus exclusively on live video for gamers. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by Twitch’s shareholders, Amazon will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Twitch for approximately $970 million in cash, as adjusted for the assumption of options and other items. Subject to customary closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2014.

It's official, folks.
 
Honestly, I feel better about Amazon acquiring Twitch over Google.

Hopefully Amazon Prime members can have an ad-free experience, haha.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
http://www.twitch.tv/p/thankyou

Letter from the CEO August 25, 2014 Dear Twitch Community, It’s almost unbelievable that slightly more than 3 years ago, Twitch didn’t exist. The moment we launched, we knew we had stumbled across something special. But what followed surprised us as much as anyone else, and the impact it’s had on both the community and us has been truly profound. Your talent, your passion, your dedication to gaming, your memes, your brilliance - these have made Twitch what it is today. Every day, we strive to live up to the standard set by you, the community. We want to create the very best place to share your gaming and life online, and that mission continues to guide us. Together with you, we’ve found new ways of connecting developers and publishers with their fans. We’ve created a whole new kind of career that lets people make a living sharing their love of games. We’ve brought billions of hours of entertainment, laughter, joy and the occasional ragequit. I think we can all call that a pretty good start. Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. 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. I personally want to thank you, each and every member of the Twitch community, for what you’ve created. Thank you for putting your faith in us. Thank you for sticking with us through growing pains and stumbles. Thank you for bringing your very best to us and sharing it with the world. Thank you, from a group of gamers who never dreamed they’d get to help shape the face of the industry that we love so much. It’s dangerous to go alone. On behalf of myself and everyone else at Twitch, thank you for coming with us. Emmett Shear, CEO
 

Tawpgun

Member
Better than google tbh.

I love google as a company they do top notch stuff but the google ID forced down everyones throat, especially through youtube is the WORST
 

Revven

Member
Amazon I feel should be better than Google but we'll see, I guess. I'm relieved to see in the letter that the CEO of Twitch says they get to keep their independence. That puts me more at ease.

Then again, anything can happen so...
 

Percy

Banned
"Amazon acquires Twitch"

Amazon should see a doctor then, because that's sometimes an early symptom of an incoming stroke.
 
fa59dd45362476753e611dc216e08f67.png


damnmmmm
 
so now amazon has twitch and some game studios, interesting... Hopefully twitch streams get better now that they have amazon behind em
 

mcrommert

Banned
Amazon is a good decision...look at audible and goodreads...amazon has only improved those services and not taken them over...great company to be bought by
 

RdN

Member
I thought they already had sold to Google? Well.. Amazon does have the infrastructure necessary to get Twitch running smoothly. We'll see.
 
Amazon I feel should be better than Google but we'll see, I guess. I'm relieved to see in the letter that the CEO of Twitch says they get to keep their independence. That puts me more at ease.

Then again, anything can happen so...

Well, they bought Woot (which is far more tuned toward Amazon's bread and butter - selling stuff), and that seems to have just expanded, not changed, really. Amazon's been alright with their acquisitions so far.

roll back vod changes and turn off the shitty audio recognition algorithm pls

None of that will happen.
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
Good that it's not Google. That's not to say Amazon will necessarily be all roses and puppies, however, YouTube having any sort of competition is a good thing.
 
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