Amazon buys Twitch for $970 million

In a surprise move, Amazon was the one who finally snapped up Twitch (the video streaming site for gamers) for $970 million in cash. This development happened after Google dropped their intent to buy Twitch some 3 months ago.

Google’s offer back in May was in the vicinity of $1 billion so Amazon’s $970 million offer isn’t far off.

Google may have dropped the offer to buy Twitch earlier due to some anti-trust concerns since they also own YouTube which also has similar services as Twitch. Twitch attracts 55 million monthly viewers.

Amazon, on the other hand, is developing its Fire TV and could be using Twitch as one of its exclusive online channel. Twitch is Amazon’s biggest acquisition since Zappos in 2009 (at $850M).