The news caused a dip in share value which is now two-thirds
down from its peak in December 1999.
Although Amazon's books, music and video activities showed a $10
million profit for the first time, sales from these activities fell
4%.
The company’s chief financial officer, Warren Jenson, said:
“While I will tell you we are very pleased
to be in a business with 84% year-over-year growth, that said,
growth was slower than our internal plan... However, we were very
pleased to get ahead of the curve operationally and we were able to
exceed our own internal bottom-line target”.
The company’s net losses increased from $138 million to $317
million. The number of customer accounts has also grown and is
currently reported at 22.5 million with annual customer sales for
the period ending 30th June rising by $17 per sale to $125.
Also reported this week were the second-quarter results of
internet auctioneer e-Bay. Its net income of $13.2million exceeded
expectations and was more than two times greater than the previous
year’s income. This indicates that the company is in a strong
position for its planned expansion into the Europe, Australia,
Canada and Japan.
