Net income slid 27 percent from last year to $2.1 billion, with profits pressured by Amazon's spending to speed up most deliveries to one day.Revenue climbed 24 percent to $70 billion in the quarter to September 30, compared to the $56.6 billion in sales logged in the same period a year earlier, according to the Seattle-based company.
Amazon has been pushing to deliver packages more quickly, promising a wide selection of items to arrive within a day of being ordered by members of its Prime subscription service."We are ramping up to make our 25th holiday season the best ever for Prime customers -- with millions of products available for free one-day delivery,? said Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos in the earnings release.
Amazon, one of the world's most valuable companies, has expanded from its origins in e-commerce to cloud services, streaming media, artificial intelligence and brick-and-mortar grocery stores, with its own lineup of consumer electronics.Analyst Andrew Lipsman at the research firm eMarketer called the quarterly results"a very mixed bag for Amazon with a couple shining bright spots but also some clouds looming in the cloud business.