Amazon and Google’s sales surge on digital revolution
INTERNET giants Google and Amazon both reported dramatic jumps in revenue last night – of 17 per cent and 20 per cent respectively – but both still short of investors expectations.
Amazon’s shares tumbled as much as 10.5 per cent during after hours trading after it reported its highest ever quarterly sales of $25.6bn during the fourth quarter of 2013, missing expectations of $26bn.
“It’s a good time to be an Amazon customer. You can now read your Kindle gate-to-gate, get instant on-device tech support via our revolutionary Mayday button, and have packages delivered to your door even on Sundays,” said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.
Amazon reported a small profit of $239m for the period, but said it could expect a loss of as much as $200m in its guidance for the first quarter of 2014.
“Perhaps the market expectations for them to deliver income, as their revenue growth slows is increasing,” said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.
Google reported revenue of $16.8bn during the fourth quarter with earnings of $12.01 per share, below analysts’ expectations for about $12.20 per share.
Google’s earnings were hit by losses at Motorola, the smartphone maker which Google agreed to sell to Lenovo for $2.91bn on Wednesday, with operating losses of $384m during the quarter.
“We ended 2013 with another great quarter of momentum and growth,” said Google chief executive Larry Page. “We made great progress across a wide range of product improvements and business goals.”