USA Networks Inc. said yesterday that it would expand its presence in online retailing by taking a majority stake in the Web retailer Styleclick.com Inc. for cash and assets valued at about $500 million.
The Miami-based Web retailer is drawn to objects that aren't fussy or overworked.
RedEnvelope was not the only Web retailer to run out of popular items.
Argentina's biggest Internet company, El Sitio Inc., agreed to buy the Web retailer DeCompras.com Inc. of Mexico.
The company carries out more than 1,000 deliveries a day over a cloud network operated by Amazon, the U.S. Web retailer.
It invested in the Chinese Web retailer Alibaba in 2000, pushing its founder, Jack Ma, to start Taobao, now the biggest e-commerce site in the country.
The plan also called for establishing the first truly global Web retailer offering service in seven languages and 18 different currencies.
Its chief executive, Jeff Bezos, admitted to shareholders that the web retailer would not make any profit on the bestseller, which is being widely discounted.
"When Amazon was first launching outdoors sporting goods, we panicked," said John Bresee, cofounder of Backcountry.com, a growing Utah Web retailer owned by Liberty Media.
The Web retailer Drugstore.com recently raised its price for orders of three or more generic inhalers to $8.99 a device from $6.66.
ToySmart, the defunct Disney-backed toy Web retailer, had agreed to send its chief e-commerce officer, Mark Reese, to the show as a speaker.
