After spending weeks in the “will they, won’t they” camp with Google in regards to a buyout, it appears streaming channel Twitch.tv has taken a different route, as retailer site Amazon has officially picked up the service through an acquisition valued at around $970 million.

The deal provides a huge new audience for the site, with more than 15 billion minutes of content streamed through Twitch in its three year life span, as well as one million broadcasters, including devoted gamers, companies, pro players and other outlets.

“Broadcasting and watching gameplay is a global phenomenon and Twitch has built a platform that brings together tens of millions of people who watch billions of minutes of games each month – from The International, to breaking the world record for Mario, to gaming conferences like E3. And, amazingly, Twitch is only three years old,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently, and we look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community.”

“Amazon and Twitch optimize for our customers first and are both believers in the future of gaming,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear. “Being part of Amazon will let us do even more for our community. We will be able to create tools and services faster than we could have independently. This change will mean great things for our community, and will let us bring Twitch to even more people around the world.”

Shear also posted a “thank you” letter to Twitch subscribers, explaining the acquisition. “We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch,” he said.

There’s no word yet on how services will be affected based around Amazon’s Prime service, if at all, but this is no doubt a huge acquisition for the team, and a step forward for its streaming services, which will no doubt go hand-in-hand with the company’s already popular Instant Video brand.

What do you think Is this a good move for the team at Twitch, and a smart pick-up by Amazon

Source: Polygon