Amazon.com
Sales: $4.7 billion, up 14%
Profit: $142 million, down 10%
Sometimes it's not enough to meet expectations.
Amazon.com's results were in-line with Wall Street's estimates, but investors were used to the online retailer beating forecasts. Shares plummeted some 8% after the company's report came out.
Consumers held their wallets closed during the quarter, particularly when it came to books, media and videogames -- staples of Amazon.com's sales.
But the company said it saw strong growth in Kindle sales, and third-party vendors continued to grow, boosting overall revenue. More and more third-party sellers are using Amazon.com to market goods, a business once almost exclusively done on eBay.
Amazon.com also made its biggest ever acquisition, buying online shoe retailer Zappos for nearly $850 million. The company's outlook, however, was anything but clear. The company gave an amazonian range for both profit and revenue, with analysts' estimates lying smack in the middle.
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