Amazon buys European movie rental service Lovefilm

New York City -- Amazon.com said Thursday it is buying Lovefilm, a European movie rental service akin to Netflix, according to a report by the Associated Press.



Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.



Lovefilm operates in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Much like Netflix, it is a subscription-based service through which people can rent movies by mail or watch them on TV or any other device with a high-speed Internet connection. The company also offers TV shows and games.



Amazon already has an on-demand service that lets people rent movies by streaming. However, it does not send movies in the mail, as Lovefilm and Netflix do.