M&A Deal Summary

Amazon Acquires IMDb.com

On April 27, 1998, Amazon acquired information services company IMDb.com for 55M USD

Acquisition Highlights
  • This is Amazon’s 1st transaction in the Information Services sector.
  • This is Amazon’s 19th largest (disclosed) transaction.
  • This is Amazon’s 1st transaction in the United States.
  • This is Amazon’s 1st transaction in Washington.

M&A Deal Summary
Date 1998-04-27
Target IMDb.com
Sector Information Services
Buyer(s) Amazon
Deal Type Add-on Acquisition
Deal Value 55M USD

Target

IMDb.com

Seattle, Washington, United States
IMDb.com, Inc. is an online directory and resource for movie, TV and celebrity content. IMDB was originally established as a USENET group in 1990 and was incorporated as IMDB in the UK in 1996. The site currently contains listings for cast, crew, plot summaries, trivia, reviews, and ratings.

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Buyer(S) 1

Buyer

Amazon

Seattle, Washington, United States
Category Company
Founded 1994
Sector E-Commerce
Employees1,525,000
Revenue 574.8B USD (2023)
DESCRIPTION
Amazon office building in downtown Seattle, Washington.
Amazon office building in downtown Seattle, Washington.

Amazon is an e-commerce retailer and provider of web services. Amazon enables millions of products to be sold through its website and by third parties across a variety of product categories. Customers access Amazon directly and through mobile websites and apps. Amazon also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, and Echo. Amazon also offers Amazon Prime, an annual membership program that includes free shipping and access to streaming of movies and TV episodes. Amazon was founded in 1994 and is based in Seattle, Washington.

DEAL STATS #
Overall 2 of 76
Sector (Information Services) 1 of 1
Type (Add-on Acquisition) 2 of 67
State (Washington) 1 of 6
Country (United States) 1 of 54
Year (1998) 2 of 4
Size (of disclosed) 19 of 21
PREVIOUS DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
1998-04-27 Bookpages

Gerrards Cross, United Kingdom

Bookpages Ltd., an online bookstores in the United Kingdom, providing access to all 1.2 million U.K. books in print.

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FOLLOWING DEAL
DATE TARGET DEAL TYPE VALUE
1998-08-04 PlanetAll

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

PlanetAll, Inc. provides a unique Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. PlanetAll has 1.5 million members, and thousands of new members are joining each day to use the secure, free service to organize and automatically update information about friends, business associates, relatives, and alumni. The service was launched in November 1996, and its investors include CMG @Ventures, Arts Alliance, Lycos, and Puma Technology.

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