Amazon is reportedly finally close to acquiring Times Internet-owned OTT platform MX Player. This is the second time that the ecommerce giant is making an attempt to buy MX Player. As reported by e4m first, Amazon had earlier tried to seal the deal in March last year, but the talks failed then.
According to a media report, this time, the talks have reached the late stage. The details of the deal have been finalised and Amazon has already offered a term sheet to MX Player. The report, quoting sources, has claimed that the size of the deal is said to be $30-40 million. Once the buying process is complete, the team of MX Player will join Amazon's Mini TV.
After the breakdown of the deal in March last year, the two companies restarted the process in February this year.
In 2018, Times Internet surprised the world by acquiring MX Player for an estimated sum of $140 million or Rs 1,000 crore then.
e4m has reached out to both Amazon and Times Internet for their response, but is yet to get a reply.
In 2018, Times Internet suprised the world by acquiring MXPlayer for an estimated sum of $140 million or Rs 1,000 crore then.
The move was considered a bold move by the Times group, especially since the company’s previous OTT venture — BoxTV.com — had shut down in 2016 only, after four years of existence.
If the deal really goes through, then Amazon Prime Video is set to grow four times bigger in terms of consumer acquisition. Amazon has an estimated 28 million users in India while MX Player has nearly 78 million users.
This high-profile deal has the potential to make India’s OTT war intense. Incidentally, MX Player was ranked as the 3rd Most Downloaded OTT App Globally in 2022, in the State of Mobile 2023 report by Data.ai. In India, MX Player was the most downloaded app surpassing Hotstar, Zee 5, Jio TV and Jio Cinema. MX Player launched as a video player on 18 July 2011 in Korea. In 2019, it was relaunched as an OTT platform with original programming