(2 February 2008 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Online retail major Amazon.com has reached an agreement to acquire Audible for $300 million.

Audible.com provides premium digital spoken word audio content, specializing in digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, television and radio programmes and original programming. Through its web sites in the US and UK and alliances in Germany and France, Audible.com offers over 80,000 programs, including audiobooks from well-known authors such as Stephen King, Thomas Friedman, and Jane Austen, and spoken word audio content from sources including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Fresh Air and Charlie Rose.

Amazon.com senior VP worldwide digital media Steve Kessel says, "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."

Audible.com founder, CEO Donald Katz says, "This deal brings together two pioneering companies that share a long history of ceaseless focus on improving the customer experience. We are very excited to be joining a company as innovative as Amazon.com."

In recent months, Amazon has announced a number of innovations in the digital space including Amazon Kindle. This is a wireless portable reader that provides instant wireless downloads of more than 90,000 books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display.