MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
October 29 – November 5, 2009 Edition

Amazon.com Third Quarter Sales Soar

SEATTLE, WA/AUTHORLINK NEWS/10/28/09– Amazon.com last week reported a 28% increase in net sales to $5.45 billion for the third quarter, compared with $4.26 billion in the third quarter of 2008. Operating income rose 62% to $251 million in the quarter, compared with $154 million for the previous third quarter, and net income increased 68% to $199 million. The big jump in sales was driven by Kindle sales.

“Kindle has become the #1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars – not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com. It’s also the most wished for and the most gifted. We are grateful for and energized by this customer response,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “Earlier this week we began shipping the latest generation Kindle. Its 3G wireless works in the U.S. and 100 countries, and we’ve just lowered its price to $259.”

The US Kindle Store now has more than 360,000 books, including 101 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, more than 7,000 blogs, and more than 90 top US and International newspapers and magazines, and some 60,000 audiobooks from Audible.com.

This week the Company also announced “Kindle for PC,” the free application for reading Kindle books on the PC. Kindle for PC features Amazon’s Whispersync technology, which automatically saves and synchronizes customers’ bookmarks and last page read across devices, including the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, and PC.

North America segment sales, representing the Company’s US and Canadian sites, were $2.84 billion, up 23% from third quarter 2008.

International segment sales, representing the Company’s U.K., German, Japanese, French and Chinese sites, were $2.61 billion, up 33% from third quarter 2008. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, International sales grew 35%.

Worldwide Media sales grew 17% to $2.93 billion. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter sales grew 18%.

Looking ahead, the company expects fourth quarter net sales to increase by 21-to 36% compared to fourth quarter 2008. Operating income is expected to be between $300 million and $425 million, or to grow between 10% and 56% compared with fourth quarter 2008.