Amazon Q3 2012 earnings: $13.18 billion revenue, net loss of $274 million

Amazon has just released its earnings for the third quarter of the year and it looks like it's slightly off analysts' expectations. The company reported $13.18 billion in revenue (a growth of 27 percent) and an operating loss of $28 million, with net income standing at a loss of $274 million. As Amazon notes, though, a chunk of that, some $169 million, comes from losses resulting from its investment in LivingSocial -- it says the figure is "primarily attributable to its impairment charge of certain assets, including goodwill." Expectedly, the company still isn't offering any specific numbers for device sales, noting only that the Kindle Fire HD is the number one selling product across Amazon worldwide, and that the next two bestselling products worldwide are the Kindle Paperwhite and the $69 Kindle. As for its outlook for the next quarter, the company is expecting net sales of between $20.25 billion and $22.75 billion, and operating income of anywhere from a loss of $490 million to a profit of $310 million. You can find the company's full breakdown of all the numbers at the link below.

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Amazon.com Announces Third Quarter Sales up 27% to $13.81 Billion
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 25, 2012-- Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2012.

Operating cash flow increased 8% to $3.37 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $3.11 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2011. Free cash flow decreased 31% to $1.06 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.53 billion for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, 2011.

Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 469 million on September 30, 2012, consistent with 469 million one year ago.

Net sales increased 27% to $13.81 billion in the third quarter, compared with $10.88 billion in third quarter 2011. Excluding the $348 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales grew 30% compared with third quarter 2011.

Operating loss was $28 million in the third quarter, compared with operating income of $79 million in third quarter 2011. The unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter on operating loss was $3 million.

Net loss was $274 million in the third quarter, or $0.60 per diluted share, compared with net income of $63 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, in third quarter 2011. The third quarter 2012 includes a loss of $169 million, or $0.37 per diluted share, related to our equity-method share of the losses reported by LivingSocial, primarily attributable to its impairment charge of certain assets, including goodwill.

"Our approach is to work hard to charge less. Sell devices near breakeven and you can pack a lot of sophisticated hardware into a very low price point," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "And our approach is working – the $199 Kindle Fire HD is the #1 bestselling product across Amazon worldwide. Incredibly, this is true even as measured by unit sales. The next two bestselling products worldwide are our Kindle Paperwhite and our $69 Kindle. We're selling more of each of these devices than the #4 bestselling product, book three of the Fifty Shades of Grey series. And we haven't even started shipping our best tablet – the $299 Kindle Fire HD 8.9" ships November 20."

Highlights

Compared to the iPad mini, Kindle Fire HD 8.9" has:

193% more pixels (2,304,000 pixels vs. 786,432 pixels)
56% more pixels-per-inch (254 vs. 163)
Watch HD movies and TV – cannot on iPad mini (iPad mini is an SD device)
Better audio with dual stereo speakers and Dolby Digital Plus
Wi-Fi with dual band, dual antennas + MIMO
Costs $30 less
Compared to the iPad mini, Kindle Fire HD 7" has:

30% more pixels (1,024,000 vs. 786,432 pixels)
33% more pixels per inch (216 vs. 163)
Watch HD movies and TV – cannot on iPad mini (iPad mini is an SD device)
Better audio with dual stereo speakers and Dolby Digital Plus
Wi-Fi with dual band, dual antennas + MIMO
Costs $130 less
Amazon.com introduced the fifth generation Kindle e-readers: Kindle Paperwhite is the most advanced e-reader ever constructed with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, up to 8 weeks of battery life, and a thin and light design for just $119; Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G - never pay for or hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot with the all-new top-of-the-line Kindle e-reader with free 3G wireless for just $179; and the new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, now with new, improved fonts, faster page turns for just $69.
Amazon.co.jp launched the Japanese Kindle Store, offering customers a vast selection of over 50,000 Japanese-language Kindle books. In total, the store offers over one million titles, including the largest selection of bestsellers in English and other languages.
Amazon.com announced a new licensing agreement with EPIX for movies including The Avengers, Iron Man 2, The Hunger Games, Super 8, Thor, and more, expanding its catalog of title offerings for Prime Instant Video to more than 30,000 movies and TV episodes.
Amazon announced significant updates to Cloud Player, including scan and match technology which provides customers a fast and easy way to get all of their music from their computers to the cloud. Cloud Player customers can then enjoy their music on their favorite devices, including Kindle Fire, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android devices, Sonos home entertainment systems, and any web browser. Amazon also expanded Cloud Player to the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
Amazon announced it is hiring for more than 50,000 seasonal positions at its fulfillment centers across the U.S. this holiday season. Amazon employs more than 20,000 people across its 40 U.S. fulfillment centers and pays its full-time, permanent employees 30 percent more than what traditional retail store employees earn.
Amazon has announced 19 new fulfillment centers worldwide to be opened in time to support this year's holiday demand.
North America segment sales, representing amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions through North America-focused websites, and including amounts earned from Amazon Web Services (AWS), were $7.88 billion, up 33% from third quarter 2011.
International segment sales, representing amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions through internationally-focused websites, were $5.92 billion, up 20% from third quarter 2011. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 27%.
Worldwide Media sales grew 11% to $4.60 billion. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 14%.
Worldwide Electronics and Other General Merchandise sales grew 36% to $8.56 billion. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, sales grew 39%.
The NASDAQ OMX Group announced the launch of FinQloud, a cloud computing offering powered by AWS and exclusively designed for the financial services industry. FinQloud provides efficient management and storage of financial data to help market participants streamline operations and meet regulatory compliance requirements without making costly capital expenditures for their underlying infrastructure.
AWS announced that more than 300 government agencies and 1,500 education institutions are leveraging AWS for a wide range of uses including big data analytics, high performance computing, web and collaboration applications, archiving and storage, and disaster relief. AWS also announced new services and features available in the AWS GovCloud (U.S.) Region, including the addition of high performance computing capabilities.
AWS announced Amazon Glacier, a secure, reliable and extremely low cost storage service designed for data archiving and backup. Amazon Glacier is designed for data that is infrequently accessed, yet still important to retain for future reference, and for which retrieval times of several hours are suitable.
Financial Guidance

The following forward-looking statements reflect Amazon.com's expectations as of October 25, 2012. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce and the various factors detailed below.

Fourth Quarter 2012 Guidance

Net sales are expected to be between $20.25 billion and $22.75 billion, or to grow between 16% and 31% compared with fourth quarter 2011.
Operating income (loss) is expected to be between $(490) million and $310 million, compared with $260 million in the prior year period.
This guidance includes approximately $290 million for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets, and it assumes, among other things, that no additional business acquisitions, investments or legal settlements are concluded and that there are no further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates.
A conference call will be webcast live today at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET, and will be available for at least three months at www.amazon.com/ir. This call will contain forward-looking statements and other material information regarding the Company's financial and operating results.

These forward-looking statements are inherently difficult to predict. Actual results could differ materially for a variety of reasons, including, in addition to the factors discussed above, the amount that Amazon.com invests in new business opportunities and the timing of those investments, the mix of products sold to customers, the mix of net sales derived from products as compared with services, the extent to which we owe income taxes, competition, management of growth, potential fluctuations in operating results, international growth and expansion, the outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, risks of inventory management, seasonality, the degree to which the Company enters into, maintains and develops commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, and risks of fulfillment throughput and productivity. Other risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks related to new products, services and technologies, system interruptions, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. In addition, the current global economic climate amplifies many of these risks. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.

Our investor relations website is www.amazon.com/ir and we encourage investors to use it as a way of easily finding information about us. We promptly make available on this website, free of charge, the reports that we file or furnish with the SEC, corporate governance information (including our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics), and select press releases and social media postings.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle Paperwhite is the most-advanced e-reader ever constructed with 62% more pixels and 25% increased contrast, a patented built-in front light for reading in all lighting conditions, extra-long battery life, and a thin and light design. The new latest generation Kindle, the lightest and smallest Kindle, now features new, improved fonts and faster page turns. Kindle Fire HD features a stunning custom high-definition display, exclusive Dolby audio with dual stereo speakers, high-end, laptop-grade Wi-Fi with dual-band support and dual-antennas/MIMO for 40% faster throughput than other tablets, enough storage for HD content, and the latest generation processor and graphics engine-and it is available in two display sizes-7" and 8.9". The large-screen Kindle Fire HD is also available with 4G wireless, and comes with a groundbreaking $49.99 introductory 4G LTE data package. The all-new Kindle Fire features a 20% faster processor, 40% faster performance, twice the memory, and longer battery life.

Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and www.amazon.es. As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.