By the second quarter of 2008, Amazon.com Incorporated plans to acquire Audible Incorporated, the leading online provider of premium digital spoken word audio content. Through its web sites in the US and UK and alliances in Germany and France, Audible.com offers over 80,000 programs, including digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, television and radio programs and original programming. Under the terms of the agreement, Amazon.com will commence a cash tender offer to purchase all of the outstanding shares of Audible.com for $11.50 per share and will assume Audible.com"s outstanding stock-based awards, for an aggregate transaction value of approximately $300 million.
"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry. Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience," said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com"s senior vice president for worldwide digital media.