[sangnoir]

> Hmm, I guess fundamentally I find it hard to believe that a large corporation would acquire a smaller one just to let them run completely independently - it just seems counter-intuitive unless the acquirer is a holding company, basically.

I don't find it hard to believe - it is a perfectly valid defensive move to contain a potential competitor. What if an independent Zappos decided to start selling everything, not just shoes? Also, it might provide an internal 'skunkworks' where Amazon finds lessons applicable to the larger organization without killing the golden-egg-laying goose. It's quite a reasonable way of self-disrupting.