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Amazon to buy Diapers.com for $540 million

finance.fortune.cnn.com

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

#11

Post by ceejayoz »

jakarta wrote: post #8

I'd be really interested in seeing how much equity the founders have left in the business. It's definitely not capital light, so I can imagine that they had to raise quite a bit of money to get it off the ground and running.

I actually read an article on how Diapers.com got started. It was a couple folks in a garage. P&G and the other diaper manufacturers wouldn't talk to someone so small, so they got warehouse club memberships and just bought mass quantities to mail out.

At times, they apparently bought out the BJs and Sams Clubs within a 100 mile radius. They were doing it all on credit cards in their own cars and rented U-Hauls.

Here's the article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-07/diapers-com-takes-o...

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

#12

Post by user24 »

tvon wrote: post #9
user24 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yeah. I actually flagged the article because that headline is far too misleading (not themichael's fault).

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.

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

#15

Post by hristov »

prs wrote: post #4

A bit of a background on diapers.com - referred to in the article - Recommended Read. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/10_42/b41...

You gotta have nerves of steel to start an Internet business with your own money where you ship stuff out and lose money on each thing you ship. Or maybe you have to have a lot of money.

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

#17

Post by sparky »

user24 wrote: post #12
tvon wrote: 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.

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.

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

#18

Post by vaksel »

hristov wrote: post #15
prs wrote: post #4

A bit of a background on diapers.com - referred to in the article - Recommended Read. http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/10_42/b41...

You gotta have nerves of steel to start an Internet business with your own money where you ship stuff out and lose money on each thing you ship. Or maybe you have to have a lot of money.

they sold another business prior to this, so it's probably the latter
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