Amazon today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire the remaining shares it doesn’t yet own in LOVEFiLM International Limited for an undisclosed sum. LOVEFiLM is nicknamed the Netflix of Europe with 1.4 million members across the U.K., Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Germany. The U.K.-based company enables users to stream films to PCs, Internet enabled TVs, and the PS3.

“According to the BBC, Amazon will be in competition with Netflix’s planned expansion overseas. Netflix currently operates in the United States and Canada.

A press released from Lovefilm said the deal between Amazon and Lovefilm is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011.”

Amazon already had a 42% stake of the company before the acquisition, and the two began to work together in 2008 when LOVEFiLM bought Amazon’s DVD service. Netflix is heading to Europe one way or another, and to compete against a company of that scale Amazon’s acquisition of an already-established alternative service is a pretty good strategy.

In addition to the purchase of LOVEFiLM, Amazon has also been investing elsewhere, including LivingSocial. The Groupon competitor has received $175 million worth of funding from Amazon as well as another $8 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners. Amazon also invested in cloud-archiving pioneer Sonian. The company raised $9 million in Series B funding, participation from new investors Amazon.com and Webroot as well others.