Amazon Prime Eyes To Poach Rival Film Executives To Boost Presence

Amazon.com Inc AMZN is amid a senior movie-studio executive hunt to helm its growing entertainment division, the Wall Street Journal reports.

In March, Amazon closed the $6.5 billion acquisition of the MGM movie and television studio. Earlier this year, Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, MGM executives, quit Amazon to join Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc WBD.

Amazon Studios had conversations with several Hollywood leaders, including Netflix Inc's NFLX film head, Scott Stuber. Stuber has been instrumental in cementing Netflix's status as the numero uno streaming company.

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Amazon Studios also discussed with former Paramount Global PARA Paramount Pictures executive Emma Watts. However, Netflix's position got jeopardized as Walt Disney Co DIS loosened its pursestrings to surpass it in subscriber numbers and content offerings.

Netflix's global slowdown has led to a scale back in its spending and operations. Netflix's subscriber and market value decline triggered a debate between Netflix executives and Stuber over more theatrical film debut, which the latter saw as a revenue boost for Netflix.

Amazon explored scenarios including the release of most theatrical films under the MGM banner while other features under the Amazon Studios brands. Amazon also discussed rebranding MGM's Epix premium cable channel under the MGM studio umbrella.

Amazon has invested significantly in its film operations as it saw the movies as the primary customer driver on its Prime shipping service. Amazon Studios diversified its offerings from art-house fare to programming designed to have broader appeal.

Walmart Inc WMT also recently collaborated with Paramount to offer a Paramount+ streaming service to the subscribers of its membership program. 

Price Action: AMZN shares closed lower by 1.85% at $142.10 on Wednesday.

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