Amazon 4th Quarter Profits Down 45% - Posts Full Year Loss

Amazon has announced that its fourth-quarter revenues rose by 22 percent to reach US$21.3 billion, but net profits fell by 45% to US$91 million.

For the full year, the company posted a net loss of US$39 million on sales of US$61.1 billion.

"We're now seeing the transition we've been expecting," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "After 5 years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast - up approximately 70% last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5%. We're excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem and selection."

For the second year in a row, Amazon's tablet was the most popular item for customers - Kindle Fire HD continued its run as the best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon worldwide. At year-end, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle held the top four spots on the Amazon worldwide best seller charts since launch.