Amazon and Zappos Finalize Acquisition Deal

Amazon and Zappos have finally closed the acquisition deal first announced in July, both companies have confirmed. The biggest online retailer in the world made a bid last summer to acquire the shoe and apparel shopping site in a mostly stock deal. When the deal was announced, Zappos was valuated at about $880 million, but it quickly went up to about $930 million as Amazon share prices rose. Now, at the time the deal has finalized, it is worth about $1.2 billion thanks to a huge bump in the value of Amazon stock.

“We've been spending the past few months obtaining all the proper government approvals, and I'm happy to say that we officially closed the deal at the split second between Halloween (10/31/09) and All Saints' Day (11/1/09). From a practical point of view, we've switched out our previous board of directors with a new management committee that is composed of people from Zappos as well as Amazon,” Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh wrote in an email to employees posted on the company blog.

At the time, the acquisition was seen as a good move by Amazon, which, despite already offering shoes and clothes on the site, now has a solid foothold in this market. Zappos.com is also highly regarded by most customers in the US, thanks to its great customer service. Zappos will mostly go on as before and the companies try to portray the deal as just shareholder swap with no changes to the way Zappos operates or its staff structure.

Zappos and Amazon now confirm their initial statements, no part of the management team will be changed and the site will continue to grow and develop according to its internal plans. At this time, everyone seems to be satisfied with the deal, Amazon got its hands on a growing business, Zappos will go on as it intended and its investors are significantly richer. As an added bonus, thanks to Amazon's great third quarter, the ten million shares that the retailer bought Zappos for are worth almost $300 million more than when the deal was announced, no doubt, making investors even happier.