SEATTLE & NEWARK, N.J., Jan 31, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), today announced that it has
reached an agreement to acquire Audible Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBL).
Audible.com is the leading online provider of premium digital
spoken word audio content, specializing in digital audio editions of
books, newspapers and magazines, television and radio programs and
original programming. Through its web sites in the US and UK and
alliances in Germany and France, Audible.com offers over 80,000
programs, including audiobooks from well-known authors such as Stephen
King, Thomas Friedman, and Jane Austen, and spoken word audio content
from sources including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Fresh Air
and Charlie Rose.
"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest
content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the
industry," said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com's senior vice president for
worldwide digital media. "Working together, we can introduce more
innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience."
"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."
In recent months, Amazon has announced a number of innovations in
the digital space, including Amazon Kindle, a revolutionary wireless
portable reader that provides instant wireless downloads of more than
90,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp,
high-resolution electronic paper display.
Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon.com will commence a cash
tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Audible.com
for $11.50 per share and will assume Audible.com's outstanding
stock-based awards, for an aggregate transaction value of
approximately $300 million which includes Audible.com's cash and
short-term investments at closing.
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions,
including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the second
quarter of 2008.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in
Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers
Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com seeks to be Earth's most
customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover
anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its
customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers
offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories
such as books, movies, music & games, digital downloads, electronics &
computers, home & garden, toys, kids & baby, grocery, apparel, shoes &
jewelry, health & beauty, sports & outdoors, tools, auto & industrial.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon.com's developer customers with
access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own
back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable
virtually any type of business. Examples of the services offered by
Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2),
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon
Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments Service
(Amazon FPS), and Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Amazon.com and its affiliates operate websites, including
www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp,
www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and the Joyo Amazon websites at
www.joyo.cn and www.amazon.cn.
As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms
include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context
indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ
significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others,
risks related to the expected timing and financial or other benefits
of the Audible.com transaction, competition, management of growth, new
products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in
operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal
proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality,
commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions,
foreign exchange rates, system interruption, significant amount of
indebtedness, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments
and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could
affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006, and
subsequent filings.
About Audible.com
Audible (www.audible.com) is the leader in spoken audio
information and entertainment on the Internet. Content from Audible is
downloaded and played back on personal computers, CDs, or AudibleReady
computer-based and wireless mobile devices. Audible and its wholly
owned subsidiary, Audible.co.uk, have almost 200,000 hours of audio
programs from more than 520 content partners that include leading
audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and
newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible's
alliances in Germany and France offer an additional 20,000 hours of
audio programming. Audible is the preeminent provider of spoken-word
audio products for Apple's iTunes Store. Audible has approximately 160
employees with headquarters in Newark, NJ, and an office in London,
England, with 15 employees. Audible, audible.com, AudibleListener, and
AudibleReady are registered trademarks of Audible, Inc. and all are
part of the family of Audible, Inc., trademarks.
Securities Law Disclosure
The tender offer for the outstanding common stock of Audible has
not yet commenced. This press release is for informational purposes
only and is not an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to
sell any securities. The solicitation and the offer to buy shares of
Audible common stock will be made only pursuant to an offer to
purchase on Schedule TO and related materials that Amazon.com intends
to file with the SEC. Audible also intends to file a
solicitation/recommendation statement on Schedule 14D-9 with respect
to the offer. Audible stockholders and other investors should read
these materials carefully when they become available because they will
contain important information, including the terms and conditions of
the offer. Audible stockholders and other investors will be able to
obtain copies of these materials without charge from the SEC through
the SEC's website at www.sec.gov, from Georgeson Inc., the information
agent for the offer, toll-free at 866-328-5439 (banks and brokers call
212-440-9800), from Amazon.com (with respect to documents filed by
Amazon.com with the SEC) by going to Amazon.com's Investor Relations
Website at http://www.amazon.com/ir, or from Audible (with respect to
documents filed by Audible with the SEC) by going to Audible's
Investor Relations Website at www.audible.com/ir. Stockholders and
other investors are urged to read those materials carefully prior to
making any decisions with respect to the offer.
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com
Media Relations, 206-266-7180
www.amazon.com/pr
or
Audible.com
James Pearson, 973-820-0474
jpearson@audible.com
