VSt is the most famous hill in the world, and the most expensive too. For a century, Beverly Hills has been loving fortunes, selling dreams, that of Hollywood, and hiding its dramas under rhinestones. Jeff Bezos, the creator of Amazon, did not wait long to succumb to its poisonous charm. In 2018, the Seattle workaholic, in the midst of a midlife crisis, falls in love with her. He finds a new wife there, changes his look and offers himself in 2020 the most beautiful residence in Beverly Hills, 1,200 square meters and 3 hectares of garden, for 160 million dollars (145 million euros). It only remained for him to become a movie mogul too. In 2021, he bought the most mythical and sulphurous of all the studios in the region, Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM). The acquisition is effective since Thursday, March 17, following the agreement of the American antitrust authorities.
The big screen fascinates the little one
Around the roaring lion that introduces all the studio’s productions, there is a strange Latin quote, as American students like them: “Ars gratia Artis”, art rewards art. This is the Latin translation of Théophile Gautier’s manifesto Art for art. Art has no utility or accountability to anyone, no more to morality than to politics. Not even in business obviously. Because, like those distant stars that shine long after their death, those of Hollywood seem eternal. MGM, it’s a magical past, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the wind, Ben Hur… It is also a history punctuated by spectacular bankruptcies which burned the fingers of more than one financier. Even the French allowed themselves to be trapped there in 1990 with Crédit Lyonnais. Tossed about at the whim of its shareholders, periodically ruined by its blockbusters, its last bankruptcy dates back to 2010, MGM is no longer the Hollywood major of the 1940s and 1960s.
This did not prevent Amazon from spending 8.5 billion dollars to afford this legendary brand whose juiciest asset, apart from its incredible catalog, is the franchise. james bond. This incursion of the king of online commerce into the history of cinema, intended to enrich its Amazon Prime video platform, shows that the big screen still fascinates the little ones, even converts to the Internet and the cult of series. It also proves, implicitly, the paralysis that reigns in Washington where the boss of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan, sworn enemy of Amazon, appointed by President Biden to trim the wings of the GAFA, did not succeed in banning this operation in the name of competition, for lack of a Democratic majority in his own administration. Another Beverly Hills hex.