After 6 Years, Sold To Amazon
Jul 3rd, 2010 by admin
Two weeks before its 6th birthday, Woot! has been taken over by Amazon. (See very appropriate video announcement). Though it didnt work out with Threadless (GE/EN), Woot! has now joined with the likes of Zappos as one of Amazons subsidiaries:
Picture of Woot! 2004 - 2010: After 6 Years, Sold To Amazon [source:excitingcommerce.com]
"Holy crap! Woot has signed an agreement with Amazon - yes, the Amazon - to become an independent subsidiary of the ecommerce colossus.
Woot HQ will remain in Carrollton, Texas, and will operate as autonomously as other Amazon companies like Zappos and Audible. More details forthcoming after we pick our eyeballs up off of the floor. Anybody see where Lefty rolled off to?"
It had been going around the rumour mill for years that Amazon had an interest in Woot! With this move, it should be pretty clear that Amazon would as well want to have a go at Vente-Prive, should they ever be given the chance.
Relevant to this news is the current Fortune interview with Jeff Bezos, where he elaborates on why he likes to take over unusual enterprises:
"I just happen to think the exploration and inventing strategy is more fun. It's got its own strategies, but it's way more fun."
Or for a more somber and inpirational tone, see instead a very noteworthy speech made by Jeff Bezos at a graduation ceremony for his Princeton University alma mater: In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
Exciting Commerce has been reporting on this live shopping pioneer since the beginning (A Business Model Takes Over The World):
Woot! (One Day, One Deal) went online on July 14, 2004 and now operates 6 live shopping sites with different focus - from Wine.Woot! down to Kids.Woot! In the meantime alone in the US there are up to 150 copycat businesses.
Here a summary of our reporting on Woot! on ExcitingCommerce.com (the series in German summarized here).
How Woot! Is Working With Blippy, The Twitter For Purchases Deals.Woot!: Woot! Brings A Woot! for Bargain Hunters Woot! Reveals Order Frequency For The First Time Kids.Woot!: Woot! Launches Fifth Live Shopping Spinoff 5 Years of Woot! - A Business Model Takes Over The World Woot! 2008 - The Year in Review Woot! Founder Matt Rutledge Reveals His Secret To Success Woot! Gives Homepage(s) A Fresh Makeover Shirt.Woot! Getting One Year Old Woot! Boss To Start Blogging (This Time Its Official!) Google Trends: Surfing Habits of Woot! Fans Woot! in Asia How Woot! Pushes Itself to the Limit Woot! Sales Update for the Month of April Woot! Stats: The Heat Is On
Originally posted in German as three posts (1, 2, 3) by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.[source:excitingcommerce.com]
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