Zappos is owned by Amazon (the United States, NASDAQ: AMZN), which acquired the brand on 1 November 2009.[1][2] Zappos was founded in 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada and was independent until 2009.
Zappos sold shoes online when the accepted wisdom was that nobody would buy footwear unseen, and built its reputation on free returns and unusually long customer service calls. Amazon acquired it in 2009 for about $1.2 billion in stock. Its founder Tony Hsieh wrote a book about the company's culture, and Amazon kept it running as a separate business with its own management rather than folding it into the main site.
Amazon acquired Zappos for about $1.2 billion in stock. Zappos kept its own management, culture and headquarters, an unusual degree of independence that Amazon maintained for years afterwards.