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Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

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Re: Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

#22
post #17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should it? Why? I have no kids and am in the UK. Is it a famous business case study? Even if it is, I'm a computer scientist not a business guy. The headline makes it sound like they bought the domain name for that figure, which is sensationalist and inaccurate.

If that's their company name ( http://www.diapers.com/aboutus/aboutus.aspx ), that's their company name. Take it up with diapers.com (the company, not the domain name) if it's confusing. For the record, I agree with you, but a bunch of parenthesized "we mean the company, not just the domain name" seems superfluous given that the rest of the article is a click away.

And yet the headline didn't say "Amazon.com to buy Diapers.com"...

("Amazon.com, Inc." is the name of the company.)

Re: Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

#24
post #20

Ah, so it's a business! From the title I thought it was just a domain purchase, that would be the greatest (disclosed) ever by a significant amount if it was.

Wasn't broadcast.com sold for 5 billion?

broadcast.com was a company, not a domain name alone.

Re: Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

#25

A question: Do they (diapers.com) make money? Free shipping, cheap diapers, expensive warehouse and logistics, etc. All this leaves very thin margins. I'm wondering how much money they have burned until today (the other articles implied it was a lot)

The past articles written about the company have mentioned that the diapers are indeed low margin items, but they try to cross-sell products that have higher margins (products like baby oil or soap).

Since the box to send the diapers is already huge, the incremental cost of shipping these adjacent products is quite low (usually they can just throw them in the diaper box).

It's a good strategy.

Re: Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

#26

A question: Do they (diapers.com) make money? Free shipping, cheap diapers, expensive warehouse and logistics, etc. All this leaves very thin margins. I'm wondering how much money they have burned until today (the other articles implied it was a lot)

More on this: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/20/diapers-com-on-its-way-to-s...

http://www.mentortechventures.com/MT-News.blog/2009/09/01/Di...

So apparently, Quidsi (the real name) is at break even*, has raised 80 million in equity since 2006 (plus the founders own injections), and this year will sell 270m while spending 30m on advertising.

At first I thought that they may not have been worth the 500m, but I'm rethinking that now.

Re: Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

#28
post #12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised, diapers.com should be pretty well known to anyone interested in business or entrepreneurship.

Should it? Why? I have no kids and am in the UK. Is it a famous business case study? Even if it is, I'm a computer scientist not a business guy. The headline makes it sound like they bought the domain name for that figure, which is sensationalist and inaccurate.

They got a lot of press (at least in the US) for their innovative procurement robots... that's how a lot of kidless American geeks found out about their success.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/06/10/whats-the-secret-behind...

Re: Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's their company name ( http://www.diapers.com/aboutus/aboutus.aspx ), that's their company name. Take it up with diapers.com (the company, not the domain name) if it's confusing. For the record, I agree with you, but a bunch of parenthesized "we mean the company, not just the domain name" seems superfluous given that the rest of the article is a click away.

And yet the headline didn't say "Amazon.com to buy Diapers.com"... ("Amazon.com, Inc." is the name of the company.)

Yeah, it's nice to be so famous you're known by your first name only. Cher, Rosanne, Oprah.
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