Amazon.com just finished acquiring online shoe retailer Zappos.com in a deal valued at more than $1 billion. Is the company now looking at another acquisition worth three times that much? That's the thrust of a report today in TechCrunch Europe, which says the e-commerce giant is in "deep and secret negotiations" with Vente-Privee, a French private sales club. The report suggests the two companies are talking about a price of 2 billion Euros, or about $3 billion.

Paris-based Vente-Privee holds "exclusive designer brand sales" for members, who can register for free. The sales typically last three days, and span fashion, houseware, sport products, electronics and wine. The company says it offers heavy discounts of between 50 to 70 percent on brand-name items from more than 850 designers. Vente-Privee has more than 7 million European members and forecasts 2009 sales of $983 million, according to its website.

TechCrunch notes that U.S.-based Gilt Groupe and eBay are also looking to get into the European private sales market, but adds, "it appears that Amazon is the most serious about entering via acquisition." Representatives of Amazon and Vente-Privee couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The mostly stock-based Zappos deal was the biggest in Amazon's history.

Update: Asked about the reported Amazon talks to acquire Vente-Privee, Rachel Burrows, a Vente-Privee spokeswoman, said via e-mail that "this rumour is not true." She did not elaborate.

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