What doesn’t Amazon.com sell? Even though it started off with simply books, now you can get things ranging from music to shoes to clothing. Amazon did not start with all this merchandise, it has acquired all these industries over time with pricey and sometimes risky acquisitions.
Amazon’s first big purchase was Exchange.com in 1999 (Pepitone). This purchase intended to open up the Amazon marketplace to 3rd party sellers. This pivotal move encouraged buyers and sellers alike to partake in Amazon’s deals. Amazon’s acquisition of Exchange.com made Amazon’s marketplace what is it today, and it continues to be extremely successful. Stock for Amazon closed at $103.59 the day of the deal and closed that Friday at $186.50 (Pepitone). Amazon’s incorporation of exchange.com essentially dismantled the site and relaunched it as part of Amazon
Another purchase Amazon made was to branch into the music industry too. Amazon bought AmieStreet.com, which was a webpage that music artists could post songs and AmieStreet would post the prices according to popularity, with more popular songs there was a higher cost. Amazon bought AmieStreet in 2010 and then shut down the site and “redirected it to Amazon” (Pepitone).
Lastly, Amazon’s most expensive acquisition was the purchase of Zappos.com, which is sort of comparable to a shoes retail version of Amazon. Amazon saw competition from Zappos, which is a popular online retailer. Amazon had to ask Zappos twice before they accepted the offer. Unlike with exchange.com an AmieStreet, Zappos has not integrated into the Amazon superstore. Their website remains, and customers do not find the exact same shoes on both sites.
Amazon finds new ways to distribute a product, which leads to it’s continuous success. They have smart and decisive business moves, which result in more profit and products. With a constantly rising stock, Amazon is a good investment with smart business plans.
Julianne Pepitone (Feb. 22, 2011). “Why I sold to Amazon: 3 startup stories.” http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/21/smallbusiness/amazon_acquisitions/index.htm
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