Official: Amazon (not Google) acquires Twitch for $970 milllion [UPDATE]
Early reports of Google and YouTube looking to buy video game streaming site Twitch may have cooled down in recent months. Today, sources from both The Wall Street Journal and The Information are now reporting that it could now be Amazon looking to court Twitch, coming in hot with a $1 billion check to sweeten the deal.
Despite negative feedback from users that Twitch as a Google property would be “ruined” — despite Google already having some experience with YouTube — it was a deal that made a lot more sense. Rampant copyright claims have been plaguing popular YouTubers looking to stream game content on the site. Twitch seemed like the next logical place Google would hope to move its content creators, a promised land if you will.
While an Amazon deal doesn’t make a lot of sense, we have seen the company’s new found interest in video gaming with their recent opening of the Amazon Game Studios. Exactly what, other than street cred, Amazon hopes to gain from the deal is anyone’s guess.
UDPATE: Annnnnd… looks like everything is official, only according to the actual press release, the deal is valued at $970 million. In a statement, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said:
“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.”
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear said:
“Amazon and Twitch optimize for our customers first and are both believers in the future of gaming. 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.”