The business stories that matter, by Fortune's Colin Barr
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January 31, 2008, 7:20 am

More books on tape for Amazon

A day after its shares plunged 11% in postclose trading following a disappointing earnings forecast, Amazon.com (AMZN) is calling an audible. The online retail giant agreed Thursday to pay $300 million to buy Audible.com (ADBL), a Newark, N.J.-based maker of audio books. The all-cash deal will give Audible shareholders $11.50 a share, a 23% premium to Wednesday’s closing price. “Working together,” Amazon said in its press release, “we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience.” The Audible deal will help Amazon add to its ever-expanding offerings of books, gadgets and everything else under the sun, which is surely good for the company’s many customers. Still,  Thursday’s stock market action is likely to suggest that Wall Street remains more concerned about the cost of shipping stuff for free to those customers - and the company’s narrowing profit margins.

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Colin Barr covers business and finance for Fortune.com. Previously he was an editor at TheStreet.com and author of the weekly Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street column, and an editor at Dow Jones Newswires.
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