Ice.com Acquires Diamond.com from Odimo for $9.5 million
May 13, 06
After months of speculation about the future of Diamond.com, Ice.com announced Friday that it has purchased the online diamond and jewelry competitor from Odimo for $7.5 million, paying another $2 million for its diamond and jewelry inventory. Ice.com said in a release that the Diamond.com acquisition is part of its ongoing strategy to broaden its consumer base to include both male and female jewelry buyers. "It will leverage both the Ice.com team’s deep diamond industry access and its track record of delivering the very best selection and value to offer both Ice.com and Diamond.com customers a full range of exciting product offerings." Ice.com has recently completed an external financing round to support this strategy from the venture capital firm, Ignition Partners. The company says that it will continue to operate the Diamond.com brand. “Our Ice.com customers today are primarily women with a range of budgets and tastes. They all love the convenience, choice, and information they get by buying online,” said Shmuel Gniwisch, CEO and founder of Ice.com. "We are also excited to apply our decades of experience in the diamond business to extend the same level of service and quality to the growing number of male online jewelry buyers as well.” Executives from the software, Internet, and communications industries founded ignition Partners. Two of the partners in the investor will join the board Brad Silverberg – a pioneer of Microsoft’s Internet strategy, and John Zagula - former direct and interactive marketing leader at Microsoft and American Express. Following recent reports that Diamond.com is returning its diamond stock, market speculation suggests that Odimo is either planning bankruptcy proceedings or looking for a buyer. Since there is no long term debt, it seems that a buyout is more likely.