The agreement would bring a vast library of movies and shows to Amazon, which operates the Prime Video streaming service. MGM’s catalog includes the James Bond, Pink Panther, RoboCop and Rocky franchises, as well as films such as “The Silence of the Lambs.”

Amazon and MGM declined to comment.

Read more: Amazon’s Prime zoo would get a powerful lion in a deal with MGM

MGM, currently owned by hedge funds including Anchorage Capital Group, has been seen as a takeover target for years, but was never able to close a sale before. The company made a fresh push last year, when it reportedly hired advisers to seek offers.

What Bloomberg Intelligence says:

“The acquisition could raise Amazon.com’s streaming profile by adding a mountain of proprietary content, strengthening the reach and value of its Prime offering. The deal would be Amazon’s second biggest after Whole Foods.”
— Poonam Goyal, BI retail analyst

Click here to read the research.

The studio also has sought other ways to wring money from its movies. It held talks with Apple Inc. and Netflix Inc. about taking its new James Bond film directly to streaming, people familiar with the matter said last year. The studio opted to stick with a theatrical release for the film, which debuts in the U.S. on Oct. 8.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that an MGM-Amazon deal could come as soon as this week.

At roughly $9 billion, the MGM takeover would be Amazon’s biggest acquisition since it agreed to buy Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion. But it’s not the first sign that the company is willing to spend big on media. The company shelled out about $11 billion on content for its streaming video and music services last year alone. And it agreed to pay about $1 billion a year on NFL rights.