We had earlier reported that Amazon may be in talks too acquire video site “Twitch. We have now received official press release from both Amazon and Twitch that the deal is official, for $970 million.
Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com said,
Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old
This is what Emmett Shear said on the deal,
Amazon and Twitch optimize for our customers first and are both believers in the future of gaming, Being part of Amazon will let us do even more for our community. We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have independently. This change will mean great things for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people around the world.
Earlier, confirmed reports had come in, showing that YouTube and Twitch were almost close to closing the deal, reported to be worth more than $1 Billion. But, this sudden U-turn by twitch, has left everyone surprised. Emmett, Shear, has an explanation as to why they chose Amazon, here’s what he says :
We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. With Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch
Interestingly, we got an official statement (from both Amazon and Twitch), just a couple of hours after we sent a mail to both the companies, for an official comment on the previous speculated story. Emmett has also written a public letter to all the twitch users, which can be read here.
