AOL has invested $100m (£70.46m) in Amazon.com as part of an
expanded marketing pact between the online retailer and the
ISP.
The new deal, which marks the extension of a 1997 marketing
agreement between the two companies, is intended to bring
Amazon.com's offerings closer to AOL users, who spent an estimated
$7.8bn on online shopping during the second quarter of 2001.
The two companies plan to jointly develop online shopping services
that will be unveiled in time for the busy end-of-year shopping
period in 2002. In addition, AOL and Amazon.com will collaborate on
the development of other e-commerce initiatives, including customer
authentication and wallet services.
In return, Amazon.com will promote AOL as its exclusive ISP
marketing partner and will make AOL software available for download
from the Amazon.com Web site. The online retailer will also offer
AOL service subscriptions alongside products and services from
AOL's parent company, AOL Time Warner. The agreement will be
expanded internationally, the two companies said.
Under the terms of the original 1997 deal, Amazon.com agreed to pay
AOL $19m over three years for a permanent button on AOL's opening
screen that connects AOL users to Amazon.com's site. The agreement
also stipulated that AOL would receive additional payments if
Amazon.com's sales revenue exceeded certain levels. AOL also
incorporated a navigation tool in its NetFind search engine that
allowed users to search for books on Amazon.com.
The initial agreement was first extended in August 2000, making
access to Amazon.com available on other AOL brands, including
CompuServe and Netscape NetCenter.