News
Amazon to acquire Audible.com for $300 million
By Charles Starrett
Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2008
News Category: Digital Media
Amazon.com has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Audible Inc. for approximately $300 million. Audible.com is the leading online provider of digital spoken word content, and is the preeminent provider of audiobooks for the iTunes Store. “Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry,” said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com’s senior vice president for worldwide digital media. “Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience.” “This deal brings together two pioneering companies that share a long history of ceaseless focus on improving the customer experience,” said Donald Katz, founder and chief executive of Audible.com. “We are very excited to be joining a company as innovative as Amazon.com.” Under terms of the agreement, Amazon will make a cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Audible.com for $11.50 per share.
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1
We’re doomed.
Posted by Don Trammell on January 31, 2008 at 7:28 AM (PDT)
2
For those of us who have owned and profited from Audible stock, this is far from unexpected. As a matter of fact, this is actually overdue.
As long as I can continue to transfer my Audible purchases to my iPod the buyout should not matter to me on the consumer level.
Posted by Obadiah on January 31, 2008 at 8:37 AM (PDT)
3
One more point. This buyout coupled with the whole DRM-free music and other moves sure makes it seem like Amazon has really got iTunes in their crosshairs now.
Posted by Obadiah on January 31, 2008 at 9:39 AM (PDT)