Amazon Q4 2012 Earnings: Sales of $21B, Profits Drops

[zakislam]

Net income dropped by 45 percent to $97 million.

Amazon Q4 2012 Earnings: Sales of $21B, Profits Drops : Read more

 

[BoredErica]

For some reason, I get some level of contentment having actual physical books on my bookshelf - maybe to show others I actually read.

I still like Amazon though. It hasn't failed me thus far.

 

[schwiing]

perhaps sales are down due to sales tax being implemented in many states

 

[pacomac]

If you sell millions of Android tablets at cost it is going to damage your profitability!

 

[bustapr]

no, selling tablets at cost isnt going to damage your overall income because they arent losing any money by selling them. its a brilliant marketing move to get more people looking at their site, which logically, would turn into more sales. Id put my bet profits went down because of the sales tax implementation as well.

remember they arent actually losing money, theyre just making less money.

 

[NuclearShadow]

[citation][nom]schwiing[/nom]perhaps sales are down due to sales tax being implemented in many states[/citation]

You are correct and this is one of the reasons why they fought so hard against it. I buy from Amazon quite often but if I had to deal with taxes they will either have to drop prices to make up for it or lose my business. One of the appeals of online shopping is lower prices and part of that comes from the lack of taxes. Without it I may as well just drive for a few minutes and buy what I want and have it that day. The TV I bought a while back would have added about $60 in taxes and would have had me wait for shipping, there would have been no point in me buying it from Amazon like I did.

And you know this isn't purely a desire to collect taxes issue surely the retail companies like Wal-Mart know this and have their lobbyists make it clear that is their desire as they make campaign contributions. Using this form of legal bribery to maintain dominance in the market.

 

[bak0n]

[citation][nom]schwiing[/nom]perhaps sales are down due to sales tax being implemented in many states[/citation]
But wait. Taxing people more IMPROVES economic growth! This just doesn't make sense!

 

[jerrspud]

you're all wrong. Sales are up & profit is down. Nothing do to with sales tax, otherwise sales would be down

They paid off some debt at 156M and spend 2B on "Purchases of property and equipment, including internal-use software and website development " that had a pretty big impact on profit.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1779040&highlight=