Amazon pays $300 million for Audible

The $300 million price tag for Audible includes the assumption of outstanding stock option obligations.

Amazon.com has agreed to pay $300 million for Audible, a seller of audio books that has a close relationship with Apple.

Audible sells audio books, magazines, and radio programs through a number of channels, including its Web sites. The company has 80,000 titles in its catalog, and an additional 20,000 through partner sites in France and Germany.

Amazon began reselling Audible's content in 2000, and since 2002, Audible has also distributed audio books through Apple's iTunes Store, when it became Apple's exclusive supplier of spoken-word content. Apple modified the software in its iPods to allow bookmarking of Audible audio files. However, Audible plans to continue and grow its relationship with the iTunes Store.

Apple declined to comment on the financial deal.

The main battle front between Apple and Amazon remains the sale of digital music free of the tougher restrictions imposed by DRM (digital rights management) systems, where Amazon has been competing with Apple in US stores since September.

When Apple opened its iTunes Store, the music it sold was wrapped in a layer of DRM to prevent copying, which incidentally tied the music to Apple's iPod players and iTunes software.

Audible's audio books are wrapped in a layer of DRM, which Amazon does not plan to remove unless consumers complain.