Amazon has announced it plans to buy out Audible for about $300 million USD, expanding the company's interests in the digital audio market. Those familiar with the acquisition say the purchase will include all of Audible's cash and short-term investments.
For those unfamiliar, Audible offers a huge range of audio books from popular authors alongside a large library of newspapers, television and radio programs, magazines, and original programming. In the US, Germany and the UK, the site hosts about 80,000 programs.
"This deal brings together two pioneering companies that share a long history of ceaseless focus on improving the customer experience," said Donald Katz, founder and chief executive of Audible.com. "We are very excited to be joining a company as innovative as Amazon.com."
The deal, which should close by mid-year 2008, will help Amazon in its recent trend of moving into the digital audio market, following the glaring success of Amazon MP3.
"This deal brings together two pioneering companies that share a long history of ceaseless focus on improving the customer experience," said Donald Katz, founder and chief executive of Audible.com. "We are very excited to be joining a company as innovative as Amazon.com."
The deal, which should close by mid-year 2008, will help Amazon in its recent trend of moving into the digital audio market, following the glaring success of Amazon MP3.
