News roundup–Amazon buys Woot, more


Amazon has bought US online retailer
Woot for a rumoured $110 million (£73.7
million), writes technology blog TechCrunch. Woot’s USP is that it sells just one
deal per day. In a post on the Woot blog, CEO Matt Rutledge told customers that
Woot will continue to be run as it always has been and operate as
an independent subsidiary of Amazon. He added, “this is
about making the Woot brand, culture, and business even stronger
than it is today, and we expect that any changes will be for the
better or we wouldn’t bother with this endless
paperwork.”
In related Amazon news, the online giant has added a musical instruments and DJ store to its UK
website.

Jonathan Straight, chief executive of business-to-business and
direct-to-consumer supplier of waste and recycling solutions
Straight plc, told the Yorkshire Post that the increase in capital
gains tax from 18 to 28 percent would make it difficult to
incentivise managers at his company.

Debenhams has agreed to buy the 115
Faith Footwear concessions trading at its stores
from Faith’s administrators. The shoe retailer’s 78 standalone
stores have been shut down. Debenhams also reported today that
like-for-like sales at its stores fell 0.4 percent for the 42
weeks to June 19, but that online-or as it calls them
“multichannel”-sales grew by 90 percent in the
period.

The Financial Times reports that Nick Samuel, the
former chief executive of apparel retailer
Hobbs, has died aged 58.

Toy retailer Hamleys has released its
predictions for the best-selling toys this Christmas, reports
Press Association. The 2010 list bucks the
recent trend for a return to nostalgic and wooden toys with a
heavy presence of technology and gadgetry. Among the predictions
is an £80 all-singing, all-dancing Stinky the Garbage Truck,
a £75 Vtech Kidizoom video camera and a Ferrari F1 Electric
Ride-On with a 12V motor and an electronic gearbox with two
forward gears and a reverse gear.

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