Amazon.com to Acquire Audible.com
I’m not an expert on predicting things like mergers and sell outs, but I do listen to many podcasts, read many blogs, I try to keep up with technology. I did not see this coming. In a move that left some people speechless (me) Amazon posted a news release initiated by Business Wire, with details of Amazon to acquire Audible.com.
I don’t know about you but I think Audible has a tremendous influence in their line of business, I don’t hear of any other company announcing that their audio books are compatible with iPods or that have a direct link to the iTunes store. I’m thinking that Apple fans are going to be out of luck when thinking about buying audio books but I’m sure this will hurt Apple.
Amazon.com is positioning themselves is a digital distribution market with strong changes to become a dominant player in the digital distribution arena. Last year, Amazon.com announces that they will be selling DRM-free music on their website at significant lower prices than Apple’s iTunes. Then they introduced the Kindle, an e-book reader that looks promising with the ability to download books and newspaper from Amazon websites directly into the device.
With the addition of Audible.com to their lineup, Amazon has a strong catalog to move many people to their store and move people away from iTunes. Amazon.com already has a way to purchase other content other than just music and audio books, the problem is that most are not compatible with Mac. If they come to fix this small issue, I think that the Apple will experience a slow growth on new people paying for content on iTunes.
The merger still needs the approval of the shareholders and the SEC (Security Exchange Commission) to take place but no one is looking at any that will prevent this from happening. I’m intrigue on how this move will affect many podcasters that have sponsorships from Audible and the many people that have subscriptions downloading directly to iTunes.
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Image from wordcast.audible.com
Amazon is having a very good image in the field of audio book market .Their products are having very good image and is becoming a dominant player.