It's been a big couple of weeks for Jeff Bezos. First Amazon buys MGM for $8.5 billion, giving him rights to 4,000 films, including the Bond series, the Rocky films and The Silence of the Lambs; and also series like Fargo and The Handmaid’s Tale. But perhaps most intriguingly, he "secured access to something much more exclusive: the deleted footage from Donald Trump’s hit show The Apprentice." Democracy dies in darkness?
A big question hanging over that deal was why was Amazon paying more for MGM than Disney paid for Lucas Films and Marvel combined? Yeah, but Amazon's not Disney or Netflix, it's Prime with an entertainment division.
Still, let's put this deal into perspective. Jeff Bezos is estimated to be worth $186 billion, so he could personally (in theory) buy 22 MGMs. At $8.5 billion, MGM is 4.6% of Bezos' net worth. He's 57; according to the Federal Reserve, the average and median net worth of Americans in the 55-64 age bracket in 2019 was $1,176,000 and $213,000, respectively. Hmm...
4.6% of $1.1M is ~$54,000 or the price of a standard Mercedes Benz E-Class. 4.6% of $213K is ~$9,500 or the price of three Peloton bikes. Yup, in a sense buying MGM for Bezos was the financial equivalent of a very expensive trip to the mall for the rest of us.
Intriguing as it might be to see Bezos cameos in future Bond films, the arguably much bigger news is that of Bezos' plans for space travel. Today, Bezos trumped rival Elon Musk when he made the surprise announcement that he will be aboard his rocket company, Blue Origin's, first human flight to space. And he's taking his brother with him. (Also, is it me or does Bezos look a little puffy in his Instagram video?)
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