( dpa ) - Amazon.com boosted its profits over the holiday period, with sharply increased sales of electronics, video games and toys, the world's largest Internet retailer said Wednesday in its fourth-quarter earnings report.
The Seattle-based company said that sales were boosted by its cheap shipping incentives and low prices with revenue rising 42 per cent to 5.67 billion dollars from 3.99 billion dollars in the year ago period.
The web retailer reported net income of 207 million dollars, or 48 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with 98 million dollars, or 23 cents a share, a year earlier.
Its revenue sharply exceeded the company's own projections in October, when Amazon projected revenue of 5.1 billion dollars to 5.45 billion dollars.
Amazon said it expects first-quarter revenue in a range of 3.95 billion dollars to 4.15 billion dollars. Wall Street was looking for revenue of 3.93 billion dollars. For all of 2008, Amazon projects revenue of 18.75 billion dollars to 19.75 billion dollars. Analysts were expecting revenue of 18.25 billion dollars.