Amazon buys Egghead.com

A month after one buyer pulled out, Egghead.com was sold last week to Amazon.com Inc. for $6.1 million in cash.

Amazon acquired the domain name and intellectual property but no physical assets, such as equipment and inventory, said Patty Smith, a spokeswoman for the Seattle-based online retailer.

Amazon won't touch Egghead's customer data, Smith said. "The transaction covers customer information, but Amazon will comply with the provisions of the Egghead policy," she said.

Visitors to the Egghead.com site are redirected to Amazon's electronics page, where a notice welcomes Egghead customers and says the Egghead site will be relaunched soon.

In the meantime, returning Egghead customers must resubmit their customer data to make a purchase, according to the Web site.

Egghead filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Aug. 15 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern California District and laid off two-thirds of its employees (see story). The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company continued to operate online pending a sale of its assets to San Jose-based Fry's Electronics Inc., a bricks-and-mortar retailer.

Two months later, Fry's pulled out of the deal to buy the Web site, citing Egghead's failure to produce financial documents. Egghead ceased operations at about the same time (see story).

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