Amazon on Monday said it will acquire Twitch, a video service aimed at gamers that allows them to broadcast their virtual exploits to others online. Amazon will pay $970 million in cash for all outstanding Twitch shares. The deal closes during the second half of this year.

"Like Twitch, we obsess over customers and like to think differently," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "We look forward to learning from them and helping them move even faster to build new services for the gaming community."

Twitch's business has boomed in recent months, particularly with the arrival of Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One video game consoles. The PS4 included Twitch broadcasting capability when it launched in November, while Xbox One added it last spring. Twitch hosts more than 1 million broadcasters. In July, 55 million unique visitors watched more than 15 billion minutes of content.

In a letter to the Twitch community, CEO Emmett Shear said business will operate as usual. "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."

Amazon has been making a deeper push into the video games market. In February, the company scooped up Double Helix Games, the studio behind Xbox One brawler Killer Instinct. Earlier this month, Amazon struck a deal with game designer Dong Nguyen on a sequel to his hit mobile game Flappy Bird. The game Flappy Bird Family is exclusive to Amazon's Fire TV device.

The video service has been the subject of acquisition rumors for several months. In July, Venturebeat reported Google was planning to acquire Twitch for $1 billion. YouTube has also been reported as a potential Twitch suitor. The move also adds to Amazon's growing stable of original content. The company has already started creating original TV programming for its media service Amazon Prime, and Twitch adds one more piece of original video to its lineup.

US-based electronic ecommerce company Amazon will start delivering packages using drones or unmanned aerial vehicles in India as early as Diwali, The Economic Times reported on Wednesday.
With India lacking the rules that govern the use of UAVs, Amazon is likely to start trials of its drone delivery vehicles in Bangalore and Mumbai, cities where the the company has warehouses, people aware of the development told the financial daily. In the US, ecommerce companies are not allowed to operate drones outdoor.

In December last year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the ecommerce company is testing delivery packages using drones.

Bezos said the drones, unmanned vehicles that fly through the air, could deliver packages that weigh up to five pounds (2.3 kg). That represents roughly 86 per cent of packages that Amazon delivers, he said.

Associated Press reported Bezos was working on a way to use the small aircraft to get parcels to customers in 30 minutes or less. While flight technology makes it feasible, US law and society's attitude toward drones haven't caught up with Bezos' vision.
Bezos said the drones can carry packages that weigh up to five pounds, which covers about 86 per cent of the items Amazon delivers. The drones the company is testing have a range of about 10 miles, which Bezos noted could cover a significant portion of the population in urban areas.

Amazon has introduced its popular shopping service #AmazonCart in India. The latest shopping experience enables Indian customers to buy products from Amazon directly through Twitter.The feature which was first launched in the US in May, lets buyers in India add products they discover on Twitter to their Amazon.in shopping carts without leaving Twitter. In order to use the service, customers will first have to connect their Twitter account to Amazon. Next, they can add items to their carts just by tweeting the link of an Amazon.in product along with the #AmazonCart hashtag.

“The Twitter and Amazon agreement now extends to India to provide the maturing e-commerce industry here with another tool to engage online shoppers as well as to extend relationships on Twitter to the core of their e-commerce platforms,”
said Arvinder Gujral, business development director, south-east Asia and India, at Twitter.

Customers will get a reply tweet from @MyAmazonIN along with an email from Amazon.in when an item is successfully added to their cart. For the customers who have not connected their Twitter and Amazon accounts, they will receive a reply tweet asking them to connect their accounts to enable the new feature. The product will be added to the customer’s Amazon.in shopping cart after they have finished connecting the Twitter and Amazon accounts.