Amazon Acquires PlanetAll, Junglee

In a move aimed at further expanding its e-commerce offerings for customers, leading Internet retailer Amazon.com, Inc. today announced it signed agreements to acquire two Internet companies in deals valued at around $280 million.

In separate transactions, the company agreed to acquire PlanetAll, a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service, and Junglee Corp., a provider of Web-based virtual database technology designed to simplify online shopping.

Under terms of the agreements, Amazon.com will acquire 100 percent of the outstanding shares and assume all outstanding options of Junglee and PlanetAll in exchange for equity having an aggregate value of approximately $280 million. Amazon.com will issue around 800,000 shares under the acquisition of PlanetAll, and 1.6 million shares in connection with Junglee.

The acquisitions comprise another step forward in Amazon.com’s emerging strategy aimed at delivering more than just books in an effort to tap into its growing customer base. In June the company unveiled plans to take the plunge into the online music sales market in an effort to compete with the likes of CDnow and N2K.

Amazon.com will now gain access to PlanetAll’s 1.5 million members that employ the company’s free service to organize and update information about friends, business associates, relatives, and alumni.

“PlanetAll is the most innovative use of the Internet I’ve seen,” said Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, in a statement. “It’s simply a breakthrough in doing something as fundamental and important as staying in touch. The reason PlanetAll has over 1.5 million members–and is growing even faster than the Internet–is simple: it creates extraordinary value for its users. I believe PlanetAll will prove to be one of the most important online applications.”

Amazon.com will also leverage Junglee’s database technology which is designed to help customers choose from more than 15 million products online. Junglee’s customers and partners include Yahoo!, Compaq, Snap!, and six of the top seven newspaper companies.

“This is a significant opportunity for all of us at Junglee to extend our technology well beyond our current base,” said Ram Shriram, President and COO of Junglee. “With Amazon.com, we can address the larger challenges of e-commerce sooner–and on a broader scale–than we could have alone.”

Each transaction is expected to close within the quarter, subject to customary closing conditions.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) was up over three points trading at 111 1/4 this
morning on today’s news.