E-commerce deals update: Zappos, Ruelala.com

Well, it turns out Amazon will shell out $1.2b instead of the anticipated $928b to purchase Zappos, according to today's official press release.


Also, GSI Commerce Inc., the blueprint for PIXmania's e/merchant business I helped build, purchased US-based Retail Convergence, owner of Smartbargains.com and Ruelala.com, a 1,5 year old closed-community shopping website... for a whopping $350m. Official news release is available here. GSI Commerce now has private sales capabilities to round out its complete array of e-commerce services (customer acquisition and online marketing, storefront design, order fulfillment, customer support, technology and infrastructure, fraud prevention... you know the drill).

It has been a Happy Halloween for Zappos and RueLaLa :)