DPReview

2023年7月13日

DPreview可能被證明是一個教訓如何銷售你公司數碼攝影評論(最好稱為DPreview)被認為是最好的評論和新聞網站,由於一個強大的社區。成立在互聯網的黎明,早在1998年,在2007年,亞馬遜買的。員工在慢慢替換為承包商和自由職業者多年來直到3月亞馬遜把它打死了。反應是強烈的,和公司承諾把網站變成了一個“檔案狀態”所以人們仍然可以讀它,即使沒有新內容會被添加。亞馬遜後大聲宣布要關閉網站,似乎有機會它仍然可以生存。消息來源告訴我,許多實體聯係了亞馬遜,看看他們能買它。私人股本看到機會,但被拒絕了。我跟很多人已經在DPReview工作多年來,所有人都擔心他們可能或不能說亞馬遜由於各種合同義務。但是他們告訴我是網站的工作人員不是保存在循環發生了什麼。當亞馬遜把DPReview冰,多個源告訴我,亞馬遜計劃在完全關閉網站; in other words, it wasn’t interested in selling DPReview. Then, just last month, it did another about-face and sold the site to Gear Patrol . “It wasn’t an equity deal, but I can’t share anything beyond that,” Gear Patrol founder and CEO Eric Yang told me. “We didn’t raise any venture capital, just a bit of debt. We feel that allows us to continue to make independent editorial choices. Ten folks from DPReview are coming on board.” The saga of DPReview made me wonder why these companies decided to sell to Amazon in the first place. It goes beyond DPReview DPReview isn’t the only brand that this has happened to: Amazon bought Back to Basics Toys in 1999. Four years later, it was sold to children’s book and magazine publisher Scholastic. But it has a long history of successful acquisitions, as well: Canada’s AbeBooks, the U.K.’s Bookpages and Germany’s Telebook were all rolled into Amazon’s book businesses, for example. Other acquisitions were more strategic. LoveFilm was rolled into Amazon Video, and online payment processors Accept.com and Tapzo were rolled into Amazon’s financial services, and aspects of it became Amazon Pay. CustomFlix and BookSurge became CreateSpace, Amazon’s print-on-demand business. Audible, Zappos, Whole Foods, Ring, MGM, iRobot, Shopbop and Twitch all got to keep their original brands and presence. PillPack became Amazon Pharmacy , and who knows what the long-term strategy is for Amazon’s $4 billion acquisition of One Medical . Amazon has already quietly shuttered a bunch of brands, including Brilliance Audio, which it acquired in 2007 and shut down in 2018. Crib of the North was a well-known editorial-forward tool company, bought by Amazon in 1999, before it quietly vanished as an independent brand and later resurfaced as Acme Tools once the non-compete agreement expired. There’s a very long list of much-loved properties that Amazon owns and hasn’t meaningfully invested in recently. It’s worth keeping an eye on Goodreads and IMDb, for example. There are tons of brands that are a good fit for Amazon, and especially brands that Amazon Web Services buys. For editorial brands, such as DPReview, however, it seems like Amazon has changed its mind. Maybe the company’s change of heart will give some opportunities in the future; I just hope it doesn’t set fire to the brands we love the most. For startups, I think the lesson here is to consider who you sell to, to see whether there’s long-term alignment between you and the acquirer. If the answer is no, it may be worth looking past the dollar signs and back to the original mission of your company.