Amazon’s Top Acquisitions
Amazon.com is well known for its retail superiority online, along with its low prices and widening product categories for loyal customers. In order to reach the heights it has climbed to, the tech giant has made some key investments in other companies. Its most notable acquisitions are some names that you may or may not know. Last year it made its second largest, single payment acquisition of a company, Twitch. Below is a list of Amazon’s largest acquisitions and how much they valued having each company under its control.
Woot!- 2010
Sticking to its core competency, Amazon acquired this online retailer of electronics and customer usage products to add its portfolio to its own ranks. They paid $110 million for the company that offers many of the products Amazon offers as well.
Goodreads- 2013
Many of us look to Goodreads to get to know authors better or hear feedback about books and get a feel for public buzz about writing. It also offers a platform that users can show what they’re reading as well as seeing what their favorite authors are reading. A social site about books follows along with the corner stone to Amazon’s greatness having started as an online book market. Goodreads was bought for $150 million.
Alexa- 1999
Coupling its prowess of the internet and providing analysis for competitor dynamics, Alexa offers them a service out of retail and into web services. They see themselves as more than just a retailer but also an internet company. Alexa brought the service for web companies to Amazon for $250 million.
Audible- 2008
Sticking to its roots, Amazon purchased this audiobook site to compliment its digital and physical book product offering. Diversifying itself with Audible costs Amazon $300 million.
LOVEFiLM- 2011
This company opened the door for Jeff Bezos and Amazon to specialize their DVD delivery rental system and break into online streaming video that we now know as Amazon Instant Video. Price tag- $312 million.
Quidsi- 2010
This was an acwuitision of the parent company for Soap.com and Diapers.com, two retail sites that were redefining shipping of their specific niche products. Amazon bought Quidsi and its product offerings for $545 million.
Kiva Systems- 2012
This deal was imperative to streamlining the fulfillment centers that are the backbone of Amazon’s delivery system. Kiva used their technology to refine the picking, packing and shipping system that Amazon’s warehouses use today. Price- $775 million.
Twitch-2014
Twitch.tv is another streaming video website that focuses on video gaming content. Play backs of games can be viewed as well as live gaming. They offer live and on-demand options for viewing. Amazon bought the service for a whopping $970 million.
Zappos- 2009
The largest single acquisition in Amazon’s history is Zappos, the Las Vegas online shoe retailer. Amazon, being always focused on expanding the availability of products, saw the value in this company and in 2009 paid $1.2 billion for it.
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