Amazon buys online apparel store Zappos for $807 million

Online shoe and apparel store Zappos has made a name for itself by offering excellent customer service, allowing users to order shoes in multiple sizes and return the ones that don't fit, and overall becoming something of an Amazon-style resource for shoe shoppers.

And now it looks like Amazon wants to be the Amazon of shoe stores, because the company is making a move to acquire Zappos for 10 million shares of Amazon common stock, or about $807 million. The deal could close before the end of the year.

Zappos will continue to operate as a separate brand from Amazon, and the company's management team will stay in place. Zappos CEO tony Hsieh has published a letter sent to all his company's employees about the acquisition today. he says the move will help Zappos grow its "brand and culture." In the Q&A that follows, Zappos makes it pretty clear to employees that very few things will be changing. The company headquarters isn't moving, the health benefits aren't changing, and Zappos employees won't even get Amazon employee discounts.

[via TechCrunch]

Tags: amazon, news, zappos