Amazon acquires Audible for $300 million

Amazon.com announced Thursday that it has acquired audiobook company Audible.

The deal comes with a price tag of about $300 million in cash and short-term investments, and it is expected to be completed by the second quarter of this year.

Audible, which was founded in 1997 and operates services in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as operations in Germany and France, sells more than 80,000 audio versions of books, newspapers, and magazines, as well as television and radio content.

"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection, and the broadest device compatibility in the industry," Steve Kessel, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide digital media, said in a statement from the two companies. "Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience."

Amazon's interest in the digital-content market has become more and more evident in recent months, with the November release of its Kindle e-book reader, which can play audiobooks. Last year, Amazon also launched Amazon MP3, a music store that competes directly with Apple's iTunes.

[ibeetle]

Wonder What Will Happen On iTunes

Audible provides the audiobook content for the iTunes Store.
With Amazon and Apple in near direct competition it will be interesting to see if Audible will still be iPod compatible and/or if
they will continue to be sold on iTunes.

[wratbatblue]

Yeah, Me Too

Since the Audible-iTunes marriage first prompted me to buy and then stick with the iPod family, I'll be less than thrilled if there comes a divorce.

[-fjtorres-]

Buying Mobipocket let to Kindle...

Buying Audible will lead to...?
Isn't there an Amazon-branded DAP coming?
(Of course, Kindle already supports Audible format audio ebooks--though only those sold by Amazon).
Basically it looks like Kindle has been (in Amazon's eyes) a success and they're gearing up for round two.
Should be interesting to see what the followup is: an audio-only "Kindle", a baby Kindle, or a Kindle 2.0 with stronger media capabilities.

[jatstuff]

Hope this means the service will improve

I have been an audible.com subscriber since 1999, and their site has always been the *slowest* one on the web. Let's hope they use some of the $300 million to make the customer experience as good as amazon's.