Amazon earnings: the experiment (and losses) continue
Amazon isn’t quite what you’d call a blue chip, yet. In its quarterly earnings release after markets closed, Thursday, the giant online retailer reported an uptick in sales. But losses were up, too, nearly half a billion dollars in the third quarter alone.
“You know that Wu Tang song, Cash Rules Everything Around Me?” asks Marketplace Tech host Ben Johnson. “This has to be Jeff Bezos’s mantra over the past several years… but he hasn’t been making enough.”
From Fire phones, tablets and TVs to losses in streaming video, Amazon seems to be overwhelmed with its multiple business under one roof.
“Selling retail, but also you should remember Amazon’s cloud services,” Johnson says, are some of the bright spots. Think: the company’s $600 million cloud contract with the CIA.
Amazon has long been subject to criticism that it is too many things in one, and will eventually have to pare down. But that moment doesn’t seem to be coming any time soon.
Bezos, Johnson said, seems to be looking toward a broad ecosystem, where Amazon is a part of nearly every aspect of our lives: from retail to gadgets, to entertainment, groceries and more.
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