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Deal-of-the-day pioneer Woot acquired by Amazon

The iconoclastic online retailer takes an extremely unusual approach in making the announcement.

June 30, 2010 by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

Deal-of-the-day pioneer Woot, which has a singularly passionate audience and an unmistakable brand built on intellectual silliness, has been acquired by Amazon, the company announced yesterday.

CEO Matt Rutledge wrote in his blog about the transaction, with the style of humor that has come to characterize the company:

I know I say this every time I find a picture of an adorable kitten, but please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email. Today is a big day in Woot history. This morning, I woke up to find Jeff Bezos the Mighty had seized our magic sword. Using the Arthurian model as a corporate structure was something our CFO had warned against from the very beginning, but now that’s water under the bridge. What is important is that our company is on the verge of becoming a part of the Amazon.com dynasty. And our plans for Grail.Woot are on indefinite hold.

He goes on to stress that from the customer's point of view, nothing should change – "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."

The company, which is headquartered in Carrollton, Texas, reported annual sales of $163 million last year.

One more bit of insight into the Woot culture: The official announcement came in the form of a music video featuring a rapping stuffed monkey.

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