
Woot To Be Acquired By Amazon - icey
http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=13389
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icey
The CEO's statement: <http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=13390>

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zhyder
That's such a cool statement. If I can't be a CEO like that, I hope I have one
like that as my boss some day.

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malbiniak
keep in mind, being cool doesn't always make you a good leader, but being a
good leader is always cool.

~~~
ivankirigin

      being a good leader is always cool

like when you need to make tough decisions and fire people?

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WesleyJohnson
The two should go together, IMHO. I would much rather be fired by the cool
boss that I could relate to and shoot the shit with than a cold, by the book
boss. The problem with that is a lot of bosses find it hard to fire their
"friends" and maintain their appeal.

My last boss was like that, which is why he delegated the hiring and firing to
a "hired gun". He was a good guy for the most part, but that was the most
difficult thing to watch as I got up into management and saw what was going
on. He would make the calls to have someone canned, delegate down to the "gun"
and then put on a face of disbelief and contempt in front of everyone as
though it wasn't his choice to fire the person.

You may question, as did I, how people could buy this circus act, but it
worked quite well. When anyway would question the CEO as to why he doesn't
fire the "gun" if he doesn't agree with what he's doing, he would always
comment that when you put someone in a position like that you can't undermine
what they do. For better or for worse, you have to back them and their
decisions. Which is true, but was also just a smoke screen for what was really
going on to those none the wiser.

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ja27
Just think of the new Bag of Crap possibilities. I'm sure Amazon warehouses
are full of stuff they need to dispose of.

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kqr2
I wonder if it will be even harder to get a Bandolier of Carrots now.

Hopefully, Woot will leverage Amazon's cloud infrastructure to avoid the
dreaded "server unavailable" messages.

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tcdent
From the CEO's email:

 _...we’re geeked about the opportunities to tap into that knowledge and those
resources, especially on the technology side._

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thunk
It was a great price, but only available for one day.

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dkasper
Price paid was $110 Million all cash - <http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/30/woot-
amazon/>

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hop
Damn, did the founder(s) have full equity?

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icey
Single founder, no investors (as far as I'm aware)

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Aaronontheweb
"Several months ago, when we were all sitting on Jeff Bezos’s bumper drinking
orange Mad Dog and trying not to be noticed, we heard a voice in the distance
yelling "You kids better not scratch my Mercedes or I’m calling the cops!"

We ran. It was later that night when Amazon came by the house and said they
liked our style and also wanted to get that money we owed them for messing up
the chrome. We like to think that our relationship with Amazon will continue
at this level for many, many, many years to come."

I just thought this deserved a special space on the HN thread.

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PanMan
The 'official' youtube video announcing this is great as well:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnCHCcveteA> One of the best corporate
statements I've ever seen :)

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alttab
Its been interesting watching Amazon's acquisition strategy.

The deal-sealer for me was the video of the monkey rapping about it:
<http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=13391>

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jistein
Yeah, I can't really think of many other companies that acquire smaller
companies, and then let them operate with their money as autonomous entities.
(No sarcasm.)

Apple and Microsoft surely don't, at least.

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smackfu
Amazon is even creating separately branded subsidiaries from scratch, like
Endless.com.

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klous
Is "Woot Prime" shipping possible now instead of $5 shipping on $10 items?

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sliverstorm
Fingers crossed that this means one day I will be able to buy things on woot
and have them shipped with Prime.

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phreanix
Man I love how this guy wrote this letter. Tongue in cheek works perfectly for
Woot, and I hope Amazon knows better to keep in the background and let Woot do
what Woot does best.

I can't even decide which paragraph I love best.

 _(edited in an attempt to copy/paste a quote.)_

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fletchowns
This one made me laugh out loud:

 _Other than that, we plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run
Woot, with a wall of ideas and a dartboard. From a practical point of view, 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._

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daveambrose
Great purchase on the part of Amazon. Woot! has been an amazing pioneer in
impulse purchasing on the web and was the first of many companies that got me
excited about starting my own.

Congrats guys!

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mortenjorck
The funny thing for me about Woot's status as an impulse-purchase store is
that my impulse control has always been just strong enough to allow the simple
step of creating an account to stop me from ever committing to a purchase.

As completely ridiculous as it may sound, being able to log in with my Amazon
account and one-click™ that amazingly cheap recertified Roomba is probably
going to work on me.

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megamark16
I have a Woot account but they take forever to ship (I think I waited 3 weeks
for three sets of earbuds), so that itself sometimes deters me from buying.
Combine the awesome deal on a Roomba with free 2 day shipping and I'm screwed
:-)

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gxti
Bah! Not only is slow shipping disturbingly cheap, but it's like Christmas
when it finally shows up because you completely forgot that you'd bought
anything!

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hazmattron
To me, part of the appeal of Woot! is its nonchalance and small, independent
aesthetic. I hope it doesn't lose this in the process of becoming an Amazon
company.

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jonknee
Woot's deal today (first after the announcement) is a Kindle for $149.99.
That's a nice way to celebrate the deal.

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logic
Amazon has been making some interesting moves lately; attempting to change
their internal culture through acquisition, perhaps? (See Zappos.)

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sliverstorm
My hunch is they can feel or see stagnation on the horizon, and are trying to
mix things up a bit. Sort of the same as drinking the blood of young virgins
(hot new startups) so that the old witch (Amazon) can reclaim some of her
youth. I think the chances of success are a bit better than the blood route
though!

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viggity
I thought woot was purchased by Yahoo not too long ago?

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viggity
Apparently it was just some sort of partnership deal
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woot>

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mkramlich
woot!

