Amazon.com Buys Parent of Soap.com, Diapers.com for $550 Million
The company and its sites - big online marketers - will operate under their own names.
Amazon.com said Monday that it plans to acquire Quidsi, the parent company of several consumer health and beauty retail sites. Amazon will acquire all outstanding shares of the company for $500 million in cash. It will also assume about $45 million in debt.
Quidsi operates a baby-care site called Diapers.com, an “everyday essentials” site called Soap.com and a newly launched “beauty boutique called BeautyBar.com. The company, which is based in Jersey City, N.J., and its sites will continue to operate under their own names.
“I’m not sure which is more unpleasant – changing diapers, paying too much for them, or running out of them,” Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, said in a written statement. “This acquisition brings together two companies who are committed to providing great prices and fast delivery to parents, making one of the chores of being a parent a little easier and less expensive.”
Quidisi has been supported by more than $70 million in venture funding, including a $20 million round in April from Bessemer Venture Partners, MentorTech and others.
Launched this past summer, Soap.com is attempting to become a recognizable national brand through prodigious use of coupon site Groupon.
