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Amazon's Ambitious Bets Pile Up, and Its Losses Swell

New submitter shirleymarone sends word that investors are becoming impatient with Amazon's willingness to absorb short-term losses for theoretical long-term gains. The company brought in over $19 billion in revenue last quarter, but reported a net loss of $126 million. The company warned of even greater losses this quarter. Amazon officials exude a serene if vague confidence. "We're not trying to optimize for short-term profits," Thomas J. Szkutak, the chief financial officer, said in a conference call. "We're investing on behalf of customers and share owners," he said. "We're fortunate to have these opportunities." But even the analysts, who are generally enthusiastic about the company and its global ambitions, are asking slightly more pointed questions these days. For all these investments, one analyst asked Mr. Szkutak, why are sales not increasing even faster? His answer: Just wait. ... Amazon, which is based in Seattle, long ago transcended its roots as a simple retailer. In recent weeks it introduced Zocalo, a document storage and sharing service that grew out of its fast-growing web services division. It began a program to allow readers to consume as many e-books as they want for a set monthly fee. And it is starting to ship its long-awaited entry in the smartphone sweepstakes. The phone, the result of years of development by thousands of Amazon programmers and designers, is meeting some resistance from reviewers.

5 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Taken out of context by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "We're not trying to optimize for short-term profits," Thomas J. Szkutak, the chief financial officer, said

    That's right, they are "capitalizing on long term losses" instead.

  2. Re:Avoiding Amazon Web Services? by FearTheDonut · · Score: 5, Funny

    Besides poor punctuation, missing end parenthesis, and way too many commas.

  3. Re:surpising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    If you think AMAZON is motivated to be "good to customers" I've got a drone-delivered DILDO for your ass!

  4. Re:I'm doing my best to keep them afloat by CrankyFool · · Score: 5, Funny

    Probably because, we expect, that Slashdot readers are generally comfortable enough with elementary math to be able to either multiply $1300 by 3 ($3900) or 4 ($5200), or has easy access to a calculator.

  5. Re:surpising by istartedi · · Score: 3, Funny

    And the farmer cares about his pigs so he doesn't butcher them until they get nice and fat.

    Honey, don't log on. That copy of To Serve Man just arrived. It's a cookbook!

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?