Profit Squeeze

Amazon recently announced earnings. And, while revenues and profit margins always change, ’11 was clearly not a banner year for earning. In Q4 ’11 Amazon had revenue of $17.4 billion but net income of only $177 million, a margin of just 1%! For all of ’11 sales were $48.1 billion–half of 1% of all consumer spending–and net income was just $631 million, for a slightly better margin of 1.3%.