The Big Fat Marketing Blog

Breaking news this afternoon: Amazon spent a boat load on shoes. Yep, Amazon spent more than $850 million on Zappos.com.

Sounds like a dot-com deal of yore, especially when you consider recent bankruptcy deals like Golden Gate Capital’s purchase of Eddie Bauer or Golden Gate’s on-the-cheap deal for J. Jill.

Why did Amazon shell out so much money, and why was Zappos willing to make the deal? Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh summed it up in this e-mail to his employees: more

Sometimes, news doesn’t travel as fast as you’d wish. Like today, I heard that Alan Rimm-Kaufman had died of Leukemia on Saturday at the age of 41.

First, a few links:

• Charlottesville Daily Progress


• In Memorium: Alan Rimm-Kaufman


• Alan Rimm-Kaufman (1968 - 2009): a Tribute


more

I heard some great news last night, as a consumer, about Old Navy getting into the licensed merchandise business. According to the news on one of the New York television stations, Old Navy will soon be selling NFL and NCAA licensed apparel.

Here I am thinking Old Navy can fill the void of Steve & Barry’s, especially since the reporter used the word “affordable.” Plus Old Navy would probably be smart enough to not put a load of UConn sweatshirts in a California location, and would use the power of e-commerce to sell a New York Jets t-shirt to a fan in Iowa.

Then I read the news on Bloomberg. more

Have you been to Chad “Formerly Known As Johnson” Ocho Cinco’s Twitter page? Neither has Ocho Cinco, apparently (maybe it’s not the real one), but he wants to live-Twit during games he’s playing in.

If he does, the NFL says it will fine the Cincinnati Bengals receiver. more

Here I am thinking I’m the only poor schlep out there suffering through Chef Boyardee lunches and Pabst in a can cocktail hours. I’m far from alone, according to this study by Epsilon.

Yep, Americans are getting frugal.

Headsets.com CEO Mike Faith will be speaking this morning at the MeritDirect co-op about managing your business during hard times. Last night at the cocktail reception, Faith gave me a hint about how his company is getting by.

Its expanding into the business-to-consumer world. Faith said it will officially launch Headphones.com next week. more