Amazon.com to buy Audible for $300 million

SEATTLE and NEWARK, N.J Amazon.com today announced that it has agreed to acquire Audible for about $300 million.

Audible.com is a leading online provider of premium digital spoken word audio content, specializing in digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, television and radio programs and original programming.

"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry," said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com's senior vp for worldwide digital media. "Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience."

Amazon.com said it expects the transaction to close by the second quarter of 2008.