Delivering Happiness

Q: Can you talk like a lawyer now?
This email was sent on July 22, 2009. In connection with the
proposed merger, 
Amazon.com
 will file a registration statement on
Form S-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission that will
contain a consent solicitation/prospectus. Zappos’ shareholders and
investors are urged to carefully read the consent
solicitation/prospectus when it becomes available and other relevant
documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission
regarding the proposed merger because they contain important
information about 
Amazon.com
, Zappos and the proposed merger.
Shareholders and investors will be able to obtain the consent
solicitation/prospectus when it becomes available at 
www.sec.gov
or
www.amazon.com/ir
.
Certain statements contained in this email are not statements of
historical fact and constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Forward-looking statements reflect current expectations, are
inherently uncertain and are subject to known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors. Factors that could cause future results

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to differ materially from expected results include those set forth in
Amazon.com
’s Current Report on Form 8-K, dated July 22, 2009.
Q: Can you please stop?
okthxbye
About twenty minutes afterward, I sent a follow-up e-mail letting our
employees know that we would be having our all-hands meeting two days
later. We had rented out one of the ballrooms in a conference center near
our offices.
And then, a funny thing happened. We had prepped the managers of
each of the departments earlier that morning to meet with their teams to
answer any questions they may have about my e-mail. We had expected and
planned for there to be no productivity for the rest of the day as our
employees took in the news.
As predicted, employees were initially surprised by the news.
As predicted, employees had questions.
But within an hour of the announcement, our employees got right back
to work, continuing whatever they had been doing earlier. Our
merchandising team was busy making phone calls to our vendors and a
handful of us were busy dealing with inquiries from the press. But other
than that, for most people, it was back to business as usual. I was absolutely
amazed.
I had been worried that employees would be too shocked by the headline
of Amazon acquiring Zappos to really take in all the details that were
covered in my e-mail. Instead, after the initial surprise had subsided, I
overheard employees talking in the hallways about how excited and
enthusiastic they were about the new possibilities that would open up once
we had access to Amazon’s resources.
It was an incredible thing to witness, and perhaps one of the best
examples of our employees embracing and driving change.
All Hands

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The room was packed. I was on stage at our all-hands meeting, looking over
a crowd of seven hundred Zappos employees. Alfred and Fred were on
stage with me, along with a couple of people from Amazon.