BusinessInsider: Amazon Misses On Earnings

[SensualPoet]

Amazon generated over $10 billion in Q3 sales (Jul-Sep); to show "profit" of a mere $63 million means they must generate $1,000 for every $6.30 profit. Amazon is hardly in "start-up" mode and even expensive things like Kindle Fire are teeny investments next to $40 billion in annual sales. Investors have a right to demand a little bit better ROI.

Amazon currently employs 51,300 people, many in the US. As recently as ONE year ago, they employed 31,300 people. Amazon has created 20,000 jobs in the past 12 months ... given US unemployment of 9.1%, I wouldn't be complaining.

See: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...2205dex991.htm

[Fbone]

Now we can add Amazon to the list of companies losing money from their digital products.

[OtterBooks]

The fact that the company is projecting a possible operating income loss all but confirms that its losing a lot of money on the Kindle Fire. In the earnings release Amazon says, "Based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned.”

Maybe it costs a lot of money to manufacture several million devices that haven't been sold yet. Pre-orders don't charge til delivery. It doesn't "confirm" anything about the Fire's profit margin. Sure Amazon could be more transparent about the issue, but it doesn't excuse market analysts citing third party estimates as fact.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Yeah, somebody posted it in these boards. Links to a couple of newspaper articles on it. I'll see if I can find the links.

Edit: Here they are:

Amazon Employees Contend With 110 Degree Heat In Allentown, Penn. Warehouse

Amazon: You're hired … no wait, you're not

Thanks for those. I'm not here to defend Amazon (they are not my friend ) but I think the first is an unusual situation and the second one is pretty irrelevant to your claim. I suspect many companies we affected by the same conditions of the first one in that area not just Amazon and the second sounds like a typical bureaucratic screwup.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by JeremyR

Unfortunately, none of that matters any more in today's business world, which seemingly focuses solely on stock prices and short term profits based on shuffling stocks around by daytrading.

They mentioned this on Radio 4 this morning, and they had a short interview with someone from Amazon UK, who said (as far as I can remember) "We focus on customers, not share prices"

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Now we can add Amazon to the list of companies losing money from their digital products.

Huh?

I'm not following.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Thanks for those. I'm not here to defend Amazon (they are not my friend ) but I think the first is an unusual situation and the second one is pretty irrelevant to your claim. I suspect many companies we affected by the same conditions of the first one in that area not just Amazon and the second sounds like a typical bureaucratic screwup.

Were you replying to Rizla? Because if you did, then you didn't read the first article very well:

But this isn’t the first time Amazon has been in hot water over the company’s working conditions. Amazon required some employees to work seven days a week and scared others out of taking sick leave, according to a December 2008 report from The Times of London.

so you can't say that it's unusual for Amazon if you compare it to the current working conditions:

But many workers pushed through difficult working conditions after seeing what happened to other employees who didn’t meet expectations — they were fired and escorted out of the warehouse.

[rhadin]

The problem with Amazon's focus is that it has been on this long-term kick for 15 years already. Investors have already given Amazon more than they have given virtually any other company in terms of patience as regards a return on investment. At some point Amazon has to change its approach or expect investor rebellion.

The ultimate question for all the current satisfied Amazon customers is this: When investors force Amazon to pay attention to ROI, will customers still be calling Amazon "friend"? Something has to give and if the rest of the universe of companies is any indicator, what will give will be some of those very things that have people calling Amazon "friend".

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Were you replying to Rizla? Because if you did, then you didn't read the first article very well:

so you can't say that it's unusual for Amazon if you compare it to the current working conditions:

Yes, sorry, added the quote. I didn't realize all the other posts in-between.

and yes I read the article quite-well thank you.

[HappyMartin]

Looked at Amazons share price over the past 5 years. The company was trading around $40 five years ago and now is around the $230 mark. It has also substantially outperformed the S&P500 over the same period. Not a bad ROI. I would be happy with that.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Andanzas

Go to Your Orders. In the Date menu, you can see the first year you placed an order with Amazon.

I can't go further back than 1997 and I know I have been a customer at Amazon since at least 1994, maybe even before.

[stonetools]

All Things D sums this up well:

As long as we’re parsing the call, it’s worth noting that Szkutak repeatedly points out the value of advertising on its tablets. I’d previously assumed that the company thought of ads — several of the Kindle base models now come with “special offers” as the default option — as a way to defray the Kindle’s costs, so it could get more of them in customers’ hands. But it seems Amazon has bigger ambitions.

Again, it’s important to stress that Amazon’s gadget model is the opposite of Apple’s: Tim Cook sells media so he can sell iPads and iPhones; Bezos sells Kindles so he can sell books and videos and music and even advertising.

Apple has already established that its model works. Now we get to see Amazon’s theory really put to the test.

LINK

[afa]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I can't go further back than 1997 and I know I have been a customer at Amazon since at least 1994, maybe even before.

That's a pretty remarkable feat, considering Amazon.com only started online operations in 1995.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by afa

That's a pretty remarkable feat, considering Amazon.com only started online operations in 1995.

[stonetools]

I think we may have uncovered a time traveller.....