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Amazon rakes in £120bn in 3 months…
Amazon pulled in more than £120 billion in sales in the last three months of the year.
The US tech giant said its fourth-quarter revenue rose 9 percent to £122 billion, meaning it was making a whopping £1.3 billion a day.
The revenue numbers crushed Wall Street’s forecasts for the crucial holiday period.
But shares of the company fell in after-hours trading on Wall Street as it posted an annual loss of £2.2 billion.
The company said profits fell from £2.9bn in the same period a year earlier to £2.2bn in the fourth quarter.
Revenues up: Amazon, founded by Jeff Bezos (pictured with partner Lauren Sanchez) said revenues were up 9% in the fourth quarter, meaning it was making £1.3m a day
For the full year, sales were up 9 percent to £420 billion. But this wasn’t enough to keep it from falling into the red for the full year.
Wedbush technology analyst Dan Ives said the increase in earnings meant fears of a “horror show” were avoided.
But investors worried about the outlook and how rising costs wiped out profits.
Amazon made money during the Covid lockdowns as it took advantage of the rise of online shopping and remote working.
But this fortunes turned last year when central banks raised interest rates to address inflation and concerns about the health of the global economy increased.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded founder Jeff Bezos in 2021, has been on a mission to cut costs in the face of the economic crisis.
In its third-quarter update in October, Amazon missed its revenue forecasts and warned of a disappointing fourth quarter, sending stock prices plummeting.
Investors were particularly shocked by forecasts of a mediocre Christmas, fearing that shoppers would curb in the face of the rising cost of living.
The gloom sent shares down as much as a fifth, contributing to the share’s 51 percent decline over the course of 2022. Last week, Amazon workers staged their first strike in the UK, ringing alarm bells for the company’s operations. American giant.
Members of the GMB union at the company’s warehouse in Coventry voted to walk out in protest at a wage increase the union says is worth 50 pence an hour.
Last month, Amazon also announced it would cut more than 18,000 jobs in the largest cull in its history.
This followed rampant hiring during the pandemic, where the global workforce grew to 1.5 million.
‘Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They’re not in heavy-duty expansion mode every year,” Jassy told employees.
“This year’s assessment was more difficult given the uncertain economy and the fact that we have hired people quickly in recent years.”
÷ Alphabet reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as its parent Google’s digital advertising business struggled with an economic slowdown that has stifled corporate spending and led to mass layoffs.
Google advertising revenues, including Search and YouTube, fell from £50.2bn to £48.4bn from £48.4bn as advertisers – the largest contributors to Alphabet’s revenue – scaled back spending to cope. offer continued inflation, high interest rates and recession fears.
Alphabet’s profit fell from £16.9 billion a year earlier to £11.2 billion.