No Slump at Amazon  

by Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 7/23/2008 10:25:00 AM

The economic slump has not slowed down Amazon’s growth as the e-tailer reported the total revenue jumped 41% in the second quarter ended June 30, to $4.06 billion. Total media group sales rose 31%, to $2.41 billion, while North America media revenue had comparatively modest gains of 24%, to $1.15 billion. Net income, which includes a $53 million gain from the sale of Amazon’s European DVD rental business, rose 102%, to $158 million.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon chairman, said the increase in fuel price is an advantage for the company since more consumers seem to prefer to shop at home rather than use gas to travel to a store. CFO Tom Szkutak said he didn't expect rising transportation costs to significantly impact the e-tailer's margins, and Bezos added that the company has no intention of changing its free shipping offers because of higher gas prices.

For the first six months of 2008, North American media sales were up 23%, to $2.35 billion. Total sales rose 39%, to $8.2 billion and earnings rose to $301 million from $189 million. The company still expects total sales for the full year to rise between 30% and 35%, reaching about $20 billion.

The number of titles available for the Kindle are now up to 140,000 compared to 90,000 at launch, and the company did not break out any other Kindle figures except to say sales of e-books represent a low double digit percentage of the 140,000 titles available in both e-books and print formats