Amazon to pay US$970m in cash for Twitch

[SAN FRANCISCO] Jeff Bezos is ramping up Amazon.com Inc's entertainment ambitions, buying video-game service Twitch Interactive Inc in one of its biggest-ever acquisitions.

Amazon is paying US$970 million in cash for the online gathering place for gamers. The deal, which trumped Google Inc's pursuit of the start-up, is worth about US$1.1 billion when including retention-related payouts, said a person familiar with the deal on Monday, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

The acquisition gives the Web retailer an online forum of over 55 million monthly active users, where people discuss games or watch others as they play. Mr Bezos, Amazon's CEO, has made video games a focus of a strategy to add more entertainment service…