Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.[1] The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and launched under the domain name Shoesite.com. In July 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos in an all-stock deal worth around $1.2 billion at the time.[2][3][4][5] Amazon purchased all of the outstanding shares and warrants from Zappos for 10 million shares of Amazon's common stock and provided $40 million in cash and restricted stock for Zappos employees.[6]
The deal included a provision that if Tenaya Capital reached certain performance milestones, Lehman would receive a percentage of the profits. However, this was a performance-based payment, not an ongoing ownership interest.