Amazon takes on Netflix

Article Excerpt

AMAZON.COM $186.62 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206- 266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 448.8 million; Market cap: $83.8 billion; No dividends paid) has agreed to pay $320 million for the 58% of privately held Lovefilm International Ltd. that it didn’t already own. Amazon.com took a minority stake in U.K. based Lovefilm after it sold its DVD rental business in the U.K. and Germany to Lovefilm in 2008. Lovefilm rents movies, TV shows and video games by mail. As well, customers with Internet-enabled TV sets and game consoles can view Lovefilm’s content online. Taking full control of Lovefilm will let Amazon compete with rivals like popular Internet movie service Netflix (New York symbol NFLX). Right now, Lovefilm has over 1.6 million subscribers in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Amazon plans to continue focusing on Europe, and has no immediate plans to launch Lovefilm in the U.S. This comes at a time when Netflix is reportedly planning to build…