Gross profit is expected to exceed $175 million, an increase of over 35%. Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com's founder and CEO, said:
“For the fifth consecutive quarter we saw substantial improvement in our operations and bottom-line performance. Electronics demonstrated especially strong growth and improvements.”
Bezos expects his company to make an operating profit, excluding unusual costs, by the year’s end. The formal first quarter report is expected on 24th April.
The company’s success or failure is seen by many as a marker of internet stocks generally. Yesterday’s surge in Amazon.com’s share price, at a time when many internet companies have been issuing profit warnings, helped also raise the share value of Germany’s T-Online, Italy’s Tiscali and Spain’s Terra Networks.