Amazon ventured into uncharted territory with its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods, in particular compared to the tech giant’s other acquisitions over the past two decades.
Before Friday, when Amazon announced the blockbuster acquisition of the grocery retailer, the company’s next most-lucrative deal was its purchase of video game streaming site Twitch for a reported $970 million in 2014.
Here are some of Amazon’s other high-profile acquisitions — the company has made 76 in total, per Yahoo — ranked by price:
— Zappos, $928 million, online shoes, transaction date 2009.
— Kiva Systems, $775 million, warehouse robot systems, transaction date 2012.
— Souq, $650 million, e-commerce giant in the Middle East, transaction date 2017.
— Exchange.com, $645 million, online book marketplace, transaction date 1999.
— Quidsi, $545 million, online retailer, transaction date 2010.
— Elemental Technologies, $296 million, video processing technology, transaction date 2015.
The Whole Foods acquisition is in its own league not just because of the price tag, but also because it marks Amazon’s full-fledged move into physical retail. The deal, which is pending, sent ripples throughout the tech, retail, and financial industries. It caused shares of other traditional grocery giants to sink — Walmart was down 5 percent, Kroger was down 9 percent, Target was down 5 percent, and Costco was down 7 percent.
Meanwhile, Wall Street seemed to like the deal for Amazon, as its shares were up 2 percent on Friday.
Amazon has until this point developed its own brick-and-mortar bookstores across the country, and tested grocery concepts with two AmazonFresh Pickup sites and the experimental Amazon Go store in its hometown. The company has also rolled out the AmazonFresh grocery delivery service across the country.
