The big get bigger
Yesterday, the CEO of clothing, footwear and accessories e-tailer Zappos sent an email to all his employees entitled "Zappos and Amazon". It essentially announced that Zappos was being sold to the e-tail giant.
In a subsequent press release, Amazon confirmed an agreement had been reached for Amazon to acquire Zappos for $807 in stock and will throw in $40 million in cash and restricted stock units for Zappos employees.
It looks like Amazon intends to keep on the Zappos leadership (for now at least) and run Zappos independently on an ‘if it ain't broke don't fix it' basis.
"Zappos is a customer focused company," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon. "We see great opportunities for both companies to learn from each other and create even better experiences for our customers."
"We are joining forces with Amazon because there is a huge opportunity to utilize each other's strengths and move even faster towards our vision of delivering happiness to customers, employees and vendors," echoed Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. "We will continue to build the Zappos brand and culture in our own unique way, and we believe Amazon is the best partner to help us do this over the long term."
You can read Tony Hsieh's email to his staff here and below is a YouTube clip of Bezos, apparently directed at Zappos employees to explain where he's coming from with respect to the deal.
