Halt your frenzied shoe-purchasing for one hot sec and listen up. Amazon.com is acquiring shoe retailer Zappos.com in an $807 million deal, the companies announced today. Zappos will continue to operate as a separate brand, but has acquired 10 million shares of Amazon stock. In turn, Amazon it will provide Zappos with $40 million in cash and restricted stock as part of the deal.
OK, but when do we get to talk about the SHOES?
Wrote Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh in an e-mail to employees today:
Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say "Amazon acquires Zappos" or "Zappos sells to Amazon." While those headlines are technically correct, they don't really properly convey the spirit of the transaction. (I personally would prefer the headline “Zappos and Amazon sitting in a tree…”)
Well, there you go, Mr. Hsieh. See above.
While Amazon focuses on low prices, "Zappos does it through developing relationships," Hsieh wrote. See, we actually thought Zappos does it through free overnight shipping to scratch that I-need-shoes-YESTERDAY itch, but we're not going to split hairs here.
