Bezos boosts Amazon ambitions with $1bn deal

Jeff Bezos is ramping up Amazon's entertainment ambitions, buying video service Twitch Interactive. for about $1 billion (€758 million) in its biggest acquisition ever.

Amazon moved in to buy the online gathering place for video gamers after the startup's deal with Google fell through, people with knowledge of the matter said. Amazon is paying $970 million in cash.

Including retention-related payouts, the transaction is worth about $1.1 billion, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. The deal, the largest in Amazon’s 20-year history, gives the web retailer an online forum of more than 55 million monthly active users, where people discuss games or watch other gamers as they play.

Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive officer, has made video games a focus of a strategy to add more entertainment services.

The company operates a game studio in Seattle and has been luring software developers to build more video-game titles. – (Bloomberg)