Amazon.com has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Audible for $300 million.

Audible.com is an online provider of digital spoken word audio content, specialising in digital audio editions of books, newspapers and magazines, television and radio programs and other original programming.

Audible.com currently offers over 80,000 programs, including audiobooks and spoken word audio content.

"Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry", said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com's senior vice president for worldwide digital media.

"Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience."

When the purchase is complete, Amazon will be able to offer customers the e-book (thanks to the Kindle reader, launched in the States), the audio book - and - the actual book.