Amazon reportedly contemplating acquisition of AMC Entertainment

Amazon, a US-based technology company focused on e-commerce, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence, has reportedly expressed interest in AMC Entertainment and considering a buyout deal.

Then again, Amazon’s said interest in the movie theater chain is still only in the preliminary stage. The company has not made any offers yet to buy AMC Entertainment. At this point, Jeff Bezos’ firm is still evaluating the acquisition of the Kansas-headquartered company and its chain of movie theaters across the country.

Amazon is assessing if buying AMC Entertainment could be one way to promote its Amazon Prime movies and cross-selling other services in its distribution centers. According to Fox Business, the company’s founder asked his team of investment advisers and entertainment division heads to look into the deal and see if it would be beneficial for them to buy the movie theater chain that currently has locations in the Middle East, North America, and Europe.

Charles Gasparino, a panelist at Fox Business, said that Amazon has long been considering a possible acquisition of AMC Entertainment, but for some reason, it has not acted on the plan yet. He further said that the e-commerce giant is mainly interested in buying AMC as "a distressed asset" but clarified there is still no negotiation and there is a possibility that the deal may not even happen at all.

In any case, it is not certain if Amazon will indeed make an offer to acquire AMC Entertainment. The two companies were also contacted for comments, but there was no immediate reply from both sides.

AMC Entertainment’s stock price reportedly soared as much as 21% in Tuesday’s trading Tuesday after the report of Amazon’s interest in the company came out, as per Reuters. It closed at $5.15 per share with a market cap of around $2.67 billion.

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