Josh Hawley Burns Bezos After ‘Monopoly Platform’ Amazon Buys MGM: ‘This Sale Should Not Go Through’

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) fired a verbal warning shot on Wednesday morning following the news of Amazon’s deal to purchase entertainment company MGM, pointing to Amazon’s status as a “monopoly platform” that already “owns e-commerce, shipping, groceries & the cloud.”

“This sale should not go through. @amazon is already a monopoly platform that owns e-commerce, shipping, groceries & the cloud. They shouldn’t be permitted to buy anything else. Period,” the Missouri Republican said.

This sale should not go through. @amazon is already a monopoly platform that owns e-commerce, shipping, groceries & the cloud. They shouldn’t be permitted to buy anything else. Period. https://t.co/YyOdQ6iWPQ

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 26, 2021

News of the $8.45 billion deal broke on Wednesday, which TheVerge described as a particularly “significant acquisition for the e-commerce giant,” as it means it will “own a library of content that’s reported to consist of around 4,000 films and 17,000 hours of TV,” likely making it more attractive to customers who subscribe to other streaming services such as Disney Plus or Netflix.

Mike Hopkins, Senior Vice President of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, touted MGM’s vast library in a statement, noting its catalog of thousands of films including “12 Angry Men, Basic Instinct, Creed, James Bond, Legally Blonde, Moonstruck, Poltergeist, Raging Bull, Robocop, Rocky, Silence of the Lambs, Stargate, Thelma & Louise, Tomb Raider, The Magnificent Seven, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, and many other iconic titles—as well as 17,000 TV shows—including Fargo, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Vikings—that have collectively won more than 180 Academy Awards and 100 Emmys.”

“The real financial value behind this deal is the treasure trove of IP in the deep catalog that we plan to reimagine and develop together with MGM’s talented team,” Hopkins added. “It’s very exciting and provides so many opportunities for high-quality storytelling.”

Kevin Ulrich, Chairman of the Board of Directors of MGM, also released a statement on the deal, declaring MGM’s Lion “will continue its storied history, and the idea born from the creation of United Artists lives on in a way the founders originally intended, driven by the talent and their vision.”

“The opportunity to align MGM’s storied history with Amazon is an inspiring combination,” he added.

Sen. Hawley has long stood as a critic of Amazon, repeatedly warning of the “tyranny” of Big Tech and raising anti-trust concerns as they relate to major media conglomerates.

“The left media go after [sites like Breitbart News] and then … have companies like Google say, ‘Okay, well you can’t access our advertising services.’ Well, if you can’t access [their] advertising services, then independent platforms like Breitbart can’t exist, and Google knows that,” the author of The Tyranny of Big Tech said during a May appearance on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily.

“This is the power of their monopolies, that they could turn off the revenue flow to all of these independent news sites and opinion outlets if they so choose, and this frankly is dangerous,” Hawley added.

Last month, the Missouri lawmaker introduced a bill targeting Big Tech monopolies, such as Amazon and Google, as Breitbart News reported:

The bill bans major companies that operate search engines, marketplaces, and exchanges from selling or promoting their own goods and services through said marketplaces and search engines. If passed, this would be a major blow to Amazon and Google, which regularly engage in both practices.

Notably, Amazon rose to the spotlight in January after booting Parler off its web hosting service. The deal will now face regulatory hurdles in the months ahead.