Amazon purchases Audible
I've been a big fan of Audible and a customer for many years. Amazon must have agreed that it's a great concept listening to books when you aren't able to read them and flip the pages.
Amazon announced that it has swooped to buy Audible in a deal valued at $300m in a cash tender agreement for all of its outstanding shares. Currently Audible offers over 80,000 programmes with audiobooks from the likes of Stephen King, John Grisham (*sigh*) and Jane Austen ("Oh Mr Darcy you're using the wrong spoon *titter, titter*) as well as spoken word audio content from sources including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Harvard Business Review.
"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry," said Steve Kessel, Amazon's senior VP 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 newly minted CEO of Audible. "We are very excited to be joining a company as innovative as Amazon.com."