Woot Acquired by Amazon.com

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Nancy Newberry

Best. Announcement. Ever:

Several months ago, when we were all sitting on Jeff Bezos's bumper drinking orange Mad Dog and trying not to be noticed, we heard a voice in the distance yelling “You kids better not scratch my Mercedes or I’m calling the cops!” We ran. It was later that night when Amazon came by the house and said they liked our style and also wanted to get that money we owed them for messing up the chrome. We like to think that our relationship with Amazon will continue at this level for many, many, many years to come.

There's no official word on the price yet, but TechCrunch hears $110 million. CEO Matt Rutledge, whose flare for this kind of writing—in 140 Twitter character bursts—has made Woot enormously successfully, is positively giddy about the news:

This is definitely an emotional day for me. The feelings I’m experiencing are similar to what I felt in college on graduation day: excitement about getting a check from my folks combined with nausea from a hellacious bender the night before. I remember fondly that time when an RA turned on the lights and yelled “WHO OWNS THESE PANTS?” Except this time, the pants are a company, and the RA is you, and the sixty five hours of community service is a deal that will ensure the Woot.com experience can continue to grow for years and years and years, like a black mold behind the Gold Box.

Woot joins Zappos.com, which was acquired by Amazon last year. 

Senior contributing writer Max Chafkin has profiled companies such as Yelp, Zappos, Twitter, Threadless, and Tesla for the magazine. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. @chafkin