Twitch flies into the arms of Amazon for $1 billion

[Transcendence]

It seemed that, at one point, Twitch was betrothed to Google â€“ or so we thought. Now, however, Twitch has confirmed its betrothal to Amazon instead.

 

We know that Amazon purchased Twitch for over $1 billion, although we don’t have an exact amount. The reason behind Twitch’s turn to Amazon had everything to do with money, according to sources informed about the acquisition. Simply put, Google didn’t value the company financially, and Amazon seemed to be willing to put out more money for the deal. Fire Phone manufacturer Amazon, Inc. decided to give 20% of its current cash amount ($5.06 billion) to buy the online video game streaming site.

 

Some have said in recent days that antitrust issues provide a rationale as to why YouTube and Twitch didn’t seal the deal, although we’ve heard few details to justify this rumor.

 

Although it seems that Google and Twitch would’ve had a better relationship than Amazon will with Twitch (in terms of integration), Amazon will certainly benefit from the deal. The Jeff Bezos-led company has been putting a lot of investment into its Amazon Fire TV and offering exclusive programs by way of Twitch on its Fire TV would certainly be one way to increase sales for the device.

 

Perhaps Amazon’s got its Fire Phone in mind with the Twitch purchase; one way to increase mobile activity in Amazon’s favor on the new Fire phone is to make sure that users have mobile content worth viewing – the kind that prevents them from needing to surf the Web on YouTube.

 

While Amazon’s hooked Twitch, it doesn’t seem likely that the new deal will have that large of an effect on Amazon’s Fire phone sales. While the phone has its share of Amazon fans who use Amazon to purchase nearly everything dear to them, a large number of US consumers have been turned off by the company’s AT&T-exclusive deal that sells the phone for $199 on-contract and $649 off-contract. Perhaps it’s the case that, when Amazon’s Fire phone drops in price permanently, former users who were turned off from the purchase may actually consider buying the phone off-contract.