Woot To Be Acquired By Amazon

http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=13389

by icey • 16 years ago

195 44 16 years ago

Great purchase on the part of Amazon. Woot! has been an amazing pioneer in impulse purchasing on the web and was the first of many companies that got me excited about starting my own.

Congrats guys!

mortenjorck• 16 years ago

The funny thing for me about Woot's status as an impulse-purchase store is that my impulse control has always been just strong enough to allow the simple step of creating an account to stop me from ever committing to a purchase.

As completely ridiculous as it may sound, being able to log in with my Amazon account and one-click™ that amazingly cheap recertified Roomba is probably going to work on me.

megamark16• 16 years ago

I have a Woot account but they take forever to ship (I think I waited 3 weeks for three sets of earbuds), so that itself sometimes deters me from buying. Combine the awesome deal on a Roomba with free 2 day shipping and I'm screwed :-)

viggity2• 16 years ago

I thought woot was purchased by Yahoo not too long ago?

viggity2• 16 years ago

Apparently it was just some sort of partnership deal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woot

ja272• 16 years ago

Just think of the new Bag of Crap possibilities. I'm sure Amazon warehouses are full of stuff they need to dispose of.

kqr2• 16 years ago

I wonder if it will be even harder to get a Bandolier of Carrots now.

Hopefully, Woot will leverage Amazon's cloud infrastructure to avoid the dreaded "server unavailable" messages.

tcdent• 16 years ago

From the CEO's email:

...we’re geeked about the opportunities to tap into that knowledge and those resources, especially on the technology side.

ja272• 16 years ago

Maybe Amazon has 5,000 laptop bags with no straps.

icey2• 16 years ago

The CEO's statement: http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=13390

zhyder• 16 years ago

That's such a cool statement. If I can't be a CEO like that, I hope I have one like that as my boss some day.

seiwyn• 16 years ago

Its funny and entertaining, but I still feel more confused than informed.

malbiniak2• 16 years ago

keep in mind, being cool doesn't always make you a good leader, but being a good leader is always cool.

messel• 16 years ago

epic acquisition email. The density of so many cultural references and sarcastic reflections made by the leader of an organization sent me into a fan-boyish world wind.

I could only reply, "where do I sign up?"

dnaquin• 16 years ago

largely modeled on Tony Hsieh's.

thunk• 16 years ago

It was a great price, but only available for one day.

phreanix• 16 years ago

Man I love how this guy wrote this letter. Tongue in cheek works perfectly for Woot, and I hope Amazon knows better to keep in the background and let Woot do what Woot does best.

I can't even decide which paragraph I love best.

(edited in an attempt to copy/paste a quote.)

fletchowns• 16 years ago

This one made me laugh out loud:

Other than that, we plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot, with a wall of ideas and a dartboard. From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are simply adding one person to the organizational hierarchy, except that one person will just happen to be a billion-dollar company that could buy and sell each and every one of you like you were office furniture.

hazmattron• 16 years ago

To me, part of the appeal of Woot! is its nonchalance and small, independent aesthetic. I hope it doesn't lose this in the process of becoming an Amazon company.

klous• 16 years ago

Is "Woot Prime" shipping possible now instead of $5 shipping on $10 items?

logic• 16 years ago

Amazon has been making some interesting moves lately; attempting to change their internal culture through acquisition, perhaps? (See Zappos.)

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

My hunch is they can feel or see stagnation on the horizon, and are trying to mix things up a bit. Sort of the same as drinking the blood of young virgins (hot new startups) so that the old witch (Amazon) can reclaim some of her youth. I think the chances of success are a bit better than the blood route though!

mkramlich• 16 years ago

woot!

alttab• 16 years ago

Its been interesting watching Amazon's acquisition strategy.

The deal-sealer for me was the video of the monkey rapping about it: http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=13391

jistein• 16 years ago

Yeah, I can't really think of many other companies that acquire smaller companies, and then let them operate with their money as autonomous entities. (No sarcasm.)

Apple and Microsoft surely don't, at least.

smackfu• 16 years ago

Amazon is even creating separately branded subsidiaries from scratch, like Endless.com.

dkasper• 16 years ago

Price paid was $110 Million all cash - http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/30/woot-amazon/

kd0amg• 16 years ago

And $5 for shipping? Or can you send a company through Snail^WSmartPost?

hop• 16 years ago

Damn, did the founder(s) have full equity?

icey2• 16 years ago

Single founder, no investors (as far as I'm aware)

enjo• 16 years ago

All cash is great, but man the MAA market must still be soft if a company like WOOT (which at least seems to have a ton of mindshare) would only fetch $110M. Makes you long for the days when a Photobucket or a Bebo would go for 3-8x that.

justinweiss• 16 years ago

"After spending a lot of time falling asleep at the library while facing the philosophy books, I determined that the concept of destiny is a construct that allows man a gentle release from facing the terror of his existence, and that a Hyundai full of twenties would pretty much offer the same benefits. And so, I ultimately said YES!"

According to http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_volume_is_1_million_dolla..., 110 million in twenties is about 220 cubic feet.

According to http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/reviews/healey/2010-03-1..., a 2011 Hyundai Sonata has about 120 cubic feet of passenger and cargo space.

So, assuming TechCrunch is right, the Woot CEO is wrong. It's actually close to TWO Hyundais (Hyundai?) full of twenties.

(OK, maybe one after-tax Hyundai)

lkozma• 16 years ago

Unintentionally funny line in TC article: "having deals on things as diverse as handguns". Can one thing be diverse ?

Aaronontheweb• 16 years ago

"Several months ago, when we were all sitting on Jeff Bezos’s bumper drinking orange Mad Dog and trying not to be noticed, we heard a voice in the distance yelling "You kids better not scratch my Mercedes or I’m calling the cops!"

We ran. It was later that night when Amazon came by the house and said they liked our style and also wanted to get that money we owed them for messing up the chrome. We like to think that our relationship with Amazon will continue at this level for many, many, many years to come."

I just thought this deserved a special space on the HN thread.

PanMan• 16 years ago

The 'official' youtube video announcing this is great as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnCHCcveteA One of the best corporate statements I've ever seen :)

sliverstorm2• 16 years ago

Fingers crossed that this means one day I will be able to buy things on woot and have them shipped with Prime.

jonknee• 16 years ago

Woot's deal today (first after the announcement) is a Kindle for $149.99. That's a nice way to celebrate the deal.

Woot To Be Acquired By Amazon

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