Woot ushers in the new way to announce a deal

Amazon buys deal-of-the-day sensation; Woot founder can't hold back his delight

Today's deal on Woot, a provider of daily deals, is an Amazon Kindle for $149.99. Not surprising. We'll probably see a lot more Amazon inventory flow through that site.

If you haven't heard, Amazon just bought Woot for a reported $110 million!

Now, that's pretty impressive. But even more notable is the way the deal was conveyed.

Long are the days when announcements came from the standard staid press releases. Today, they're typically in the form of a casual blog. The quintessential example of the modern press release, err, blog announcement is the recent posting of Woot founder Matt Rutledge, whose excitement over the Amazon acquisition can hardly be concealed by his effusion.

"Today is a big day in Woot history. This morning, I woke up to find Jeff Bezos the Mighty had seized our magic sword. Using the Arthurian model as a corporate structure was something our CFO had warned against from the very beginning, but now that’s water under the bridge. What is important is that our company is on the verge of becoming a part of the Amazon.com dynasty. And our plans for Grail.Woot are on indefinite hold.

"Over the next few days, you will probably read headlines that say “Matt Rutledge revealed to be monstrous pseudo-human creation of Jeff Bezos.” You might even see this photo making the rounds. Rest assured that these rumors have nothing to do with our final decision. We think now is the right time to join with Amazon because, quite simply, every company that becomes a subsidiary gets two free downloads until the end of July, and we very much need that new thing with Trent Reznor’s wife on our iPods...

"This is definitely an emotional day for me. The feelings I’m experiencing are similar to what I felt in college on graduation day: excitement about getting a check from my folks combined with nausea from a hellacious bender the night before. I remember fondly that time when an RA turned on the lights and yelled “WHO OWNS THESE PANTS?” Except this time, the pants are a company, and the RA is you, and the sixty five hours of community service is a deal that will ensure the Woot.com experience can continue to grow for years and years and years, like a black mold behind the Gold Box. Join us, because together, we can rule the galaxy as father and son. Also, there will be six muffins waiting in the company break room, courtesy of the nice folks at Amazon.com. Welcome to the family!" 

And what's an announcement without a monkey rapper? Here's another way to announce a deal.