Zappos

Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and launched under the domain name Shoesite.com. In July 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos in all-stock deal worth around $1.2 billion at the time. Amazon purchased all of the outstanding shares and warrants from Zappos for 10 million shares of Amazon's common stock and provided $40 million in cash and restricted stock for Zappos employees. Company history Inception Zappos was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn. Swinmurn launched the company with Tony Hsieh and Alfred Lin, who invested $2 million through their investment firm Venture Frogs. The company was officially launched online in 1999 as ShoeSite.com.