Just had an interesting conversation with a woman who was with Zappos for years. Said Hsieh's "retirement" was announced electronically with no explanation.

The house that caught fire was owned by woman who was a former Zappos employee who had left the company prior to his departure. There was no information about his being in the fire and company communications at Zappos was only that he had "died in a house fire". Nothing about him having been injured or the fire itself; just the announcement of his death.

Will follow up on the IT company that purchased Zappos recently.