After months of speculation of Twitch's future and several rumored reports of a sale to YouTube, the company has finally been sold.

Amazon has come out on top of the race to purchase the popular streaming service, adding to the companies already rich portfolio of services. The sale was rumored earlier today after a Wall Street Journal report surfaced claiming the popular international electronic commerce company would pay an astonding $970 million dollars in cash.

While no sale figure is official yet, Twitch CEO Emmett Shear did confirm the sale earlier today in an open letter on the The Official Twitch Blog. Shear posted the following:

It’s almost unbelievable that slightly more than 3 years ago, Twitch didn’t exist. The moment we launched, we knew we had stumbled across something special. But what followed surprised us as much as anyone else, and the impact it’s had on both the community and us has been truly profound.

Your talent, your passion, your dedication to gaming, your memes, your brilliance – these have made Twitch what it is today. Every day, we strive to live up to the standard set by you, the community. We want to create the very best place to share your gaming and life online, and that mission continues to guide us.

Together with you, we’ve found new ways of connecting developers and publishers with their fans. We’ve created a whole new kind of career that lets people make a living sharing their love of games. We’ve brought billions of hours of entertainment, laughter, joy and the occasional ragequit. I think we can all call that a pretty good start.

Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. 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. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.

I personally want to thank you, each and every member of the Twitch community, for what you’ve created. Thank you for putting your faith in us. Thank you for sticking with us through growing pains and stumbles. Thank you for bringing your very best to us and sharing it with the world. Thank you, from a group of gamers who never dreamed they’d get to help shape the face of the industry that we love so much.

It’s dangerous to go alone. On behalf of myself and everyone else at Twitch, thank you for coming with us.

The acquisition fits in nicely with Amazon's already diverse video streaming service available through their Prime subscription and they will surely have the structure to support Twitch's enormous user base. What's more interesting is that the acquisition coincides with previous purchases like Double Helix Studio and the hiring of Far Cry 2's Clint Hocking and Portal's Kim Swift at Amazon Game Studios over the past year.

Could Amazon be ready to make a big push in the video games market? I don't know, but their recent spending trend makes me believe it is something to keep a close eye on moving forward.