Amazon today announced the completion of its initial tender offer for all outstanding shares of Audible, Inc. The tender offer expired at 12:00 Midnight, New York City time, at the end of Monday, March 10, 2008.
As of such time, an aggregate of approximately 20.5 million shares of Audible common stock (including approximately 773,000 shares that were tendered pursuant to the guaranteed delivery procedures) had been tendered into, and not withdrawn from, the offer. All of such shares have been accepted in accordance with the terms of the tender offer. The accepted shares, together with the Audible shares already owned by Amazon.com, represent over 87% of Audible’s outstanding shares.
As of 9am New York City time on March 11, 2008, Amazon.com will commence a subsequent offering period for all remaining shares of Audible stock. The subsequent offering period will expire at 5pm New York City time on Friday, March 14, 2008, unless extended. During this subsequent offering period, Audible stockholders who did not previously tender their shares into the offer may do so and will promptly receive the same $11.50 per share net to the seller in cash (subject to applicable withholding taxes), without interest thereon, offered to stockholders tendering in the initial offering period. No withdrawal rights will apply to any Audible shares tendered during the subsequent offering period.
After expiration of the subsequent offering period, as it may be extended, Amazon.com intends to complete the merger contemplated by the merger agreement as soon as practicable, with Audible becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com.
Source: Amazon.com
Hope this doesn’t affect the availability of audiobooks on iTunes.
I hope this leads to reasonable pricing and no DRM on audiobooks, regardless of whether they are on iTunes or not. It’s hard to find time to read nowadays but with so many people having long commutes the audiobook is possibly the future of fiction publishing. I don’t honestly care who sells it as long as I can play it on my iPhone.
Hope this means audible.com will load faster than cold molasses for the first time in ten years.
“12:00 Midnight, New York City time”???
So, what time is that in Boston, or Connecticut, or New Jersey, or Philadelphia, or Washington, or Atlanta, or Miami…
Last time I checked the time zones, noe were called “New York City Time”… I’d also wager that everyone in New York City, excpet this one guy, knows they are in the Eastern US TIme zone, just like the rest of the cities I listed and so many more…
Sorry… I love NYC. I really do. Well, Manhattan anyhow (Queens could be bulldozed over and made into a landfill full of baby diapers – you know, like most of north Jersey already – and it would be a MUCH nicer place for it), but seriously, such arrogance is stupid in this day and age.
As long as I don’t lose my previous books, and Amazon doesn’t turn it into another Amazon. I like Audible just as it is. Except for the slowness of the interface and non-web-standard HTML it’s built on. Once the downloads starts, it’s fine.
I’ve been a very happy Audible user for years. And I love Amazon too, but if they ruin Audible by making books more expensive, or taking away the books I was promised I could download for life, that will be the end of my audio books.
@Gupta Feldstein from Outsourceistan
More expensive! The price of audio books are already nearly twice the price of a paperback. I like audiobooks, but the price really puts me off. I’m only too glad to have iTunes sell audiobooks if it reduces the price to something more reasonable.
I’ve only bought a handful to date – but I’d snap them up like hotcakes if the price was right (sensible).
@ pocketRocket
Ever tried Audible? They are $10 to $12 a pop with a subscription which is a non-issue if you’re going to “snap them up.”
Agree with Gupta – leave Audible alone except fix interface.