Amazon MGM Studios Head To Reportedly Leave To Start Own Venture: Retail Mood Dim
Jen Salke's departure comes as Amazon invests in live sports content and advertising initiatives to grow its streaming service.
Jen Salke, the head of Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN) MGM Studios, is reportedly leaving the company to start a production company of her own.
An internal memo, sent to employees by Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins, said that the studio would not replace her, according to a Reuters report.
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Salke's departure comes as Amazon invests in live sports content and advertising initiatives to grow its streaming service.
Prime Video has signed deals for broadcasting rights to the NBA and NFL while pushing the pedal on ad sales, which one analyst expects to more than double to $7.1 billion in two years.
Even so, Prime Video lags behind industry leaders Alphabet Inc.’s (GOOGL) Google-owned YouTube and Netflix Inc. (NFLX) by watch hours. Netflix dominates in terms of most-watched series on streaming sites, according to an August report in Reuters.
Salke, a former NBC Entertainment president, helmed the combined entity that emerged when Amazon closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM in 2022.
MGM is the studio behind "Rocky" and James Bond film franchises and a key part of Amazon's content operations.
The internal memo added that Salke had already signed a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios for her production entity.
Meanwhile, Amazon's stock is having one of its worst runs in recent years amid a broader market sell-off caused by policy uncertainties in the United States.
Last week marked the eighth straight week of declines for the shares, which have dropped about 19% in this period.
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Amazon was 'bearish,’ while that for Netflix and Alphabet was 'neutral.’
Comments were mixed. One user said that the current macro trends will "cripply" Amazon's business, which depends on e-commerce.
Another noted that the company is now running more efficiently than ever and generating record growth and cash flow.
Amazon’s stock is down 12.2% year to date.
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