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AMC's Stock Is Surging On Reports Amazon May Buy It (qz.com) 48

Posted by BeauHD from the merger-talks dept.
Today, shares of AMC are up 40% (recouping about 26% of their value lost since January) solely on an unconfirmed report from the Daily Mail that Amazon is interested in buying the global theater chain. "AMC's market capitalization was about $427 million when the news broke, down from $752 million at the end of 2019," adds Quartz. From the report: The Daily Mail reported AMC and Amazon have at some point held talks about a takeover, though it was unclear if those talks were still ongoing. Deadline reported a few hours later that there were in fact no talks, according to unnamed sources. Neither AMC nor Amazon immediately responded to a request for comment. AMC Entertainment, which is owned by China's Wanda Group, is nearly $5 billion in debt, while analysts suspect it could be forced to declare bankruptcy. But the Daily Mail report alone was enough to show AMC's investors a light at the end of the tunnel. For Amazon, acquiring AMC would instantly give it a direct, global theatrical distribution pipeline for its own original films. It previously explored purchasing the smaller cinema chain, Landmark Theatres, before it was outbid by Cohen Media Group.
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AMC's Stock Is Surging On Reports Amazon May Buy It More

AMC's Stock Is Surging On Reports Amazon May Buy It

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  • own original films but if Disney and others drop theirs? and original films only in a AMC I think the law will not like that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dwywit ( 1109409 )

      Disney would have to think long and hard about their films *not* being shown in so many cinemas. It might lead to an interesting licencing and distribution deal.

      • Disney stuff on Amazon video? Yay!

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by DrXym ( 126579 )
        The current situation is an excellent time to think long and hard about that. I'm sure Disney will distribute movies cinematically for a long time yet. But if that aids a rival then maybe they'll develop other models too. Universal made $100 million charging $20 to stream a Trollz movie instead of a cinematic release and I bet Disney and all the other studios are studying the results of that experiment with greedy eyes.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by jonwil ( 467024 )

      I can't see Amazon refusing to show Disney-owned properties in Amazon-owned theaters since it would just benefit other theater chains that ARE showing the movies.

      I can't see Disney refusing to let Amazon-owned theaters show Disney-owned properties since it would just benefit other movies that ARE being shown in the Amazon-owned theaters.

  • Each theater is a MASSIVE amount of space that you can use for a product distribution center!

    Not like we need movie screens anymore.

    The 4DX theater seats can be used to test the efficacy of various packing technologies through shaking and water, to make sure that no book will be received undamaged to some degree.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      One theatre in my area was converted to several other retail and commercial spaces.

      Landmark was a good fit for them because the chain is largely kept alive by film award criteria that a film be distributed to the public for it to be considered. If Amazon wants to get a film considered for an award, like Becky Runs a marathon or whatever it was called, these are the theaters that they use. These spaces tend to be small and run films that are not going to be widely popular. I have one in my area. It is ab

  • 40% sound like a big jump but last week the stock was hovering around four bucks. At this point investors are just trying to assuage the losses that have been compounding over the last couple years.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by hAckz0r ( 989977 )

      Most likely someone started the rumour to pump the stock up in price while they cash out of that really bad investment. Sit-in movie theatres are likely on the way out due to covid-19 and internet streaming, and someone here figured out a shady way to get all their money back.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Does it include The Walking Dead? Because zombies are pretty much over now and that show has been rudderless for a while.

      • ...and the Daily Fail are playing their part nicely.

        For those who don't know... the Daily Mail in the UK is probably the bottom end of what we call the "gutter press". They are well known for printing very dubious claims and stories, often with very little fact-checking or other journalistic standards. For whatever reason though, the old folk of the UK seem to love it, and so it still sells a lot of physical paper. Online though, they have what's commonly known as "the side bar of shame" - it's usually stuf

    • A 40% jump is a 40% jump. Either way, if you own$100 of a stock you just made $40. Share price is irrelevant.

      Now, you may want to look at market cap, which is share price times the number of shares. But that only changes how big a deal it is to non-investors.

      • If you bought in at $4 then you're golden. If you bought in higher than that, it's just a blip in an otherwise-downward trend.

      • The problem is that you would have had to have the ability to buy a large amount of their stock in order to have the chance at a short term gain.If you already owned the stock a couple months ago, you're actually taking a loss by selling now, and it looks like the price is already on the way down after a quick peak. If you invested $1000 at the lowest price ($2.41), and sold at the peak (6.41) then you would have $2600, which is pretty good gains, but it would have required a huge risk, buying a stock that

  • Oh boy! (Score:5, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday May 11, 2020 @09:47PM (#60050372)

    I hope they bring the Rambler back.

    • Never had a Rambler, but I had a collection of AMX and Javelins from model years 69 - 74. Very hard on automatic transmissions when the driver was a 20 year old.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      This will give Studebaker more returns from the dead than the Amiga . . .

      hawk

  • will they have commercials for Amazon products crammed in all the time, as they do with Amazon Prime?

  • Satellite TV was already starting to flame out when ATT bought DirecTV, blowing $61 billion in the process. Movie theatres were also dying before COVID-19. Given COVID-19 and "social distancing" I don't expect them to be able to pack in crowds anytime soon. Attendance has been trending downwards anyways, with increasing ticket prices keeping revenues steady.

    Even if for some insane reason Amazon really wants to buy them, wait for AMC to go bankrupt. Without $5 billion of debt plus whatever they think they're

    • Three years ago, streaming was big. The current price of AMC is about 87% less than it was three years ago. If AMC was overvalued 4X in 2017, it might be a great deal at $5 / share.

    • Are you complaining? I'm more than happy to see Amazon buy a dying property and take a big loss on it. It would be even better if some dodgy Chinese investors threw their money at the chain and got wiped out.

  • Amazon Lockers (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Aside from using AMC Theaters as a theatrical distribution pipeline for their own films, they also could be used to house Amazon lockers for picking up orders. While you're there, catch a movie then pick up your package on the way out.

  • Theaters are almost as dead as airlines. And in 5-6 years, some people will want to fly again (and can afford it). No one is going to go to the movies again in the same kind of numbers, not with current large screen TVs and direct releases. Amazon will just pay $10 for the real estate.

    • Amazon will just pay $10 for the real estate.

      Most AMC theaters are leased, not owned.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jack9 ( 11421 )

      > some people will want to fly again

      In the US, people want to fly _now_ and some do. Airlines aren't going anywhere. You still need to be able to cross the ocean and people took very dangerous boatrides for centuries to do it. Tuberculosis, Spanish Flu, Smallpox, all came on those boats. Comparatively, air travel is still a bargain and much safer, even with this corona virus.

      Airlines are still actively used in almost every country today. I'm not sure where you get this random ~5yr window.
      Nobody wants to

  • Or maybe flophouses? Either one seems like a good investment.

  • Theaters were on the ropes before Corona... we are now seeing the end of the movie theater era.

    Seriously - how long will it be until people want to cram together into a room? 3 months? 6 months? a year? How long can theaters hold out with a fraction of attendance?

    I predict +90% of theaters will close forever. Makes no sense for Amazon to buy them. They are a relic of the past.

  • Horrible projection. Under-driven dim lamps, well past their "best by" date.

    Sound so bad as to be actually laughable. Blown-out woofers, dead surrounds. I mean really... you're not even trying.

    Sticky floors. Smelly, stinky auditoriums from their preferred "urban" crowd. Fights in the parking lots.

    No. Netflix, you'd be best served by creating a new cinema experience, one akin from the 30's - 70's, when you had ushers, curtains, respect, and presentation took precedence over everything else.

    If you can hi

  • .... when they can just draw out a pile of cash and set it on fire.

  • I for one am pretty amazed by the news Amazon wants to buy this excellent commodore 64 game. Let's hope they can make a decent remake out of it and give Jeff Minter of Llamasoft a very well deserved bag of money.

  • As a european, i see AMC and think of the car company folded into Fiat-Chrysler.
  • Maybe Amazon plans to turn them all into delivery centres - pick up your package from screen 8.

  • Unconfirmed anonymous report? A 40% jump in one day is a good scam.

    Pump and Dump [wikipedia.org].

  • I knew those American Motors Corporation shares would be worth something again someday!

  • I misread it as AMD and was really excited about it until I re-read it. Nothing to see here, moving on.

  • "For Amazon, acquiring AMC would instantly give it a direct, global theatrical distribution pipeline for its own original films."

    Instantly? While movie theaters are closed? I do not think that word means what you think it means.

  • I would love to see the math on this, $5 billion in the hole and stocks are still worth something, what a crock of shit the stock market is.
  • I really like AMC Theaters. I really don't like Amazon and am avoiding giving them money, though entirely boycotting them is very difficult since you never know who is using AWS cloud services. So I may not be able to see movies at AMC when I'm in Phoenix now? That would seriously suck.
  • this sucks. It happened in 2008, in the 90s, in the 80s. Every time the economy collapses the big banks and 1%ers get bailed out (witness the stockmarket doing fine while we have 25% unemployment ala The Great Depression).

    Then they take the bail out money and buy up everything.

    Then prices go up and wages go down because there's fewer places to shop and fewer places to work.

    We had a chance to change it this cycle and we blew it. Now all we can do it try and limit the damage so as we can try again
  • when everyone called Microsoft a monopoly...then there's this "Amazon" company and nobody is saying shit...if you aren't already wiping your ass with amazon toilet paper then you should really check out their new movie theater. I even heard they are buying out Pop-Secret to have Amazon:Popcorn being droned at your doorstep the second you watch one of their movies.

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