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Amazon.com to sell cars
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August 23, 2000: 11:03 a.m. ET
Online retailer links with Internet car seller Greenlight.com
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - In a bid to become the earth's biggest car showroom, Internet retailer Amazon.com announced Wednesday that it has teamed with online car seller Greenlight.com to provide car-buying services to its 23 million customers.
Tapped as Amazon's exclusive new car partner, Greenlight.com will sell cars through a tab featured on Amazon's site, sending Amazon users to the Greenlight site.
The announcement furthers an earlier alliance between the companies that took place in January when Amazon (AMZN: Research, Estimates) took a 5 percent stake in the San Mateo, Calif.-based company in January.
Amazon registered a number of automotive-oriented domain names Aug. 11, including usedcarsamazon.com, newcarsamazon.com, sellcarsamazon.com, carclassifiedsamazon.com and partsamazon.com, according to a search of the Whois.org domain name registry.
"We're excited to be involved in this emerging industry online," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "Greenlight combines the interests of all parties -- the customers, the dealers and the manufacturers -- producing a simple and fast buying experience for customers."
Under terms of the January agreement, Amazon acquired 5 percent of Greenlight's outstanding shares for an undisclosed sum. Amazon also will receive $82.5 million from Greenlight.com over a 5-year period and receive warrants to increase its stake to 30 percent during that time.
Greenlight.com secured $39 million in new equity Monday from sources including venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Asbury Automotive Group, Ripplewood Holdings and Freeman Spogli & Co.
 Greenlight.com sells cars in 27 markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit, and has 2,000 dealer partners.
Just last week, Amazon-affiliated online furniture store Living.com, shuttered its virtual doors and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. The site had been available to Amazon's 23 million customers through a tab on the e-tailer's site.
Amazon also recently announced a deal with toy seller Toysrus.com, in which the companies will launch a co-branded toy site that will replace Amazon's toy channel and the current Toysrus.com site.
In early Wednesday trading, shares of Amazon fell 11/16 to 35-13/16. 
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Greenlight.com
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