Amazon closes $8.5-bn MGM deal after regulators decline to oppose It

Amazon shares were little changed at $3,062.67 at 9:35 a.m. in New York.

Amazon.com Inc. said it closed the $8.5 billion acquisition of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after regulators declined to challenge the deal, cementing the company’s biggest takeover in five years.

The closing, announced Thursday in a statement on the company’s website, marks the latest deal by a U.S. technology giant to win approval despite criticism that the companies have been able to gobble up smaller firms with little pushback from competition enforcers.

European Union regulators signed off on the MGM deal Tuesday after finding it posed no competition problems. In the U.S., the deadline for the Federal Trade Commission to challenge the deal