Amazon’s Profit Surges By 24 Percent
By Anna Johnson on April 28th, 2009While Microsoft’s revenues and profits took a hit during the last quarter, fellow Seattle tech company and online retailer, Amazon, reported growing sales and profit during the same period.
Amazon’s net profit was up 24 percent, to $177 million, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with $143 million in the same quarter last year. Its revenues were $4.89 billion, 18 percent higher, year-on-year, than the year before.
Amazon has apparently benefited from attracting more cost-conscious customers during the economic downturn, and from keeping costs down whilst innovating on such fronts as its Kindle ebook reader.
Amazon’s electronics and general merchandise sales, and its media sales, were, respectively, 38 percent and 7 percent higher during the quarter than in the third quarter last year.
Reporting its results, Amazon warned that while it expected revenues to be 6-17 percent higher year-on-year for the coming quarter, operating income could be up to 49 percent lower.
