Amazon buys Twitch.tv for nearly $1B USD.

Is this the first time a non .com was sold for this much money? I know twitch attracts a large audience, but aren't these gamers generally so focused on their industry that selling them other products via passive advertising might just be an uphill battle? What does Amazon hope to achieve? Are they going to utilize this service for their own advertising revenues, or are they shutting down a competitor for some other plan they have in the works? I've been on twitch maybe twice and hearing that it is responsible for 2% of internet traffic just boggles my mind.

Articles on this topic

online.wsj.com... (sorry this article is behind a paywall).

www.nytimes.com...

A general overview of twitch

mashable.com...

What's more interesting is google actually tried to acquire it for more money than this and were apparently turned down.

variety.com...

Sorry, already posted.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: Daavid

Opps. I pooped in the pool.

a reply to: Nechash

No worries, the mods will scoop it out with their net.