Amazon.com Tuesday added home furnishings to its product lineup, taking an 18 percent stake in domestic site living.com.
With the agreement, living.com will pay Amazon.com (AMZN)
$145 million over five years in exchange for being the exclusive Amazon.com
domestic store — providing furniture, bedding and other related home
categories for the giant e-tailer. Amazon.com will acquire an 18 percent
stake in the company, with warrants for another 9 percent upon the
transaction’s closing. The firm will also have a seat on the living.com
board of directors.
Amazon.com, who inked the deal just a day after taking a 5 percent stake in
(ADBL)
, said it believes the move will result in greater shopping convenience and selection for Amazon.com customers.
“This means that living.com will be the leading provider of home living
products — a $180 billion market — on a valuable piece of e-tail real
estate. Further, it puts on a fast track our plans to rapidly broaden our
e-tailing offerings,” said Shaun Holliday, chief executive officer of
living.com.
The deal with living.com is latest installment in a series of investments
made by the behemoth. Last week, Amazon.com boosted its stake in drugstore.com (DSCM) , raising its stake to almost 28 percent with the $30 million investment.
The e-tailer also took a 5 percent stake in online car retailer Greenlight.com.