Amazon.com, Inc. announced Monday that it is buying Twitch Interactive, Inc., a live-streaming service for video game players, for roughly $970 million in cash.
The acquisition should help Amazon better compete with video-streaming rivals Netflix Inc. and Google Inc.’s YouTube, The Wall Street Journal reported.
“Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community,” Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said in a statement.
Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Twitch for approximately $970 million in cash, according to a press release. The acquisition is expected to close before the end of this year.
Twitch is a live-video platform and community for gamers that launched in June 2011. The Wall Street Journal ranked Twitch as the fourth-largest website in the U.S. in terms of peak internet traffic, the release said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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