SAN FRANCISCO, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Amazon.com Inc., the world's largest online retailer, on Wednesday announced that it has agreed to buy online shoe store Zappos.com Inc. in a deal worth nearly 850 million U.S. dollars.

    Seattle-based Amazon said it will acquire all of the outstanding shares and assume all outstanding options and warrants of Zappos in exchange for approximately 10 million shares of Amazon common stock, a transaction worth about 807 million dollars.

    In addition, Amazon intends to provide Zappos employees with 40million dollars in cash and restricted stock units.

    The deal is expected to close this fall. Amazon said Zappos management team will remain intact after the acquisition and the company will operate its brand independently with headquarters in Las Vegas.

    "We see great opportunities for both companies to learn from each other and create even better experiences for our customers," Amazon's chief executive officer (CEO) Jeff Bezos said in a statement.

    Since its founding in 1999, Zappos has quickly become a leader in online apparel and footwear sale, currently stocking millions of products from over 1,000 clothing and shoe brands.

    "We are joining forces with Amazon because there is a huge opportunity to utilize each other's strengths and move even faster towards our vision of delivering happiness to customers, employees and vendors," said Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.