Hot on the heels of Walgreen’s acquisition of drugstore.com comes today’s surprise announcement that Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is acquiring Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD). The story just broke on Dow Jones Newswires. Wow!Here’s what CEO Jeff Bezos had to say about the combination, which will be renamed RITEon.com:
“Amazon's 2010 revenues were $34.2 billion, up 134% over the past four years. We have the highest American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) score for any retailer, whether Internet or brick-and-mortar. Acquiring a debt-laden underperformer that loses market share each and every day is exactly the kind of challenge that I need.”Apparently, Rite-Aid’s 15 minute prescription guarantee program will be retooled because (per Bezos) “one-quarter of an hour is not Internet speed.” Following the acquisition, Amazon Prime members who don’t get their prescription filled in 5 minutes will get a free Amazon Instant Video movie rental. On the downside, RITEon.com will only guarantee that prescriptions are "mostly accurate."
"RITEon, a groovy idea, man," added Bezos.
Read my comments below for important details of this surprising deal.
.
.
.
.
OMG! It’s April Fool’s Day again!
