Hot Tweet: Amazon Buys Woot

Woot, the online retailer that pioneered the idea of one hot sale a day, signed an agreement with online retailer Amazon (AMZN) to become an independent subsidiary of the much-larger company. Amazon's purchase of Woot won't change things, CEO Matt Rutledge wrote in a snark-filled email to the company this afternoon: "We plan to continue to run Woot the way we have always run Woot – with a wall of ideas and a dartboard."

Rutledge went on: "From a practical point of view, it will be as if we are simply adding one person to the organizational hierarchy, except that one person will just happen to be a billion-dollar company that could buy and sell each and every one of you like you were office furniture."

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. Update:Techcrunch is reporting the price was $110 million.

Reaction on Twitter was shocked, given Woot's long-term place as a renegade with clean, simple rules and little frills. Tobias Buckell, a longtime follower of both companies at DailyFinance sister site BloggingStocks, had one response: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO."

Even the official tweet from Woot had this disclaimer: "Not a dream! Not a hoax!" Meanwhile, Internet advertising strategist Jay Weintraub noted that Amazon is an investor in Woot (since January 2008) and has "a clause making Woot less attractive to others."

Whatever Twitter users think of the deal, Rutledge's memo regarding the sale was the star, called "hilarious," "awesome," and "genius." The CEO concluded his remarks this way: "For Woot, our vision remains the same: somehow earning a living on snarky commentary and junk."