Amazon shares were down 2% after the company reported second quarter earnings Thursday afternoon.
Ford (NYSE:F) reported a 57% drop in second quarter earnings to $1.04 billion, as growing losses from its European operations sapped a stronger performance in North America.
Excluding share based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, non GAAP net income was $295 million or $0.12 per share, compared to $285 million and $0.12 per share for the same quarter in the prior year.
Amazon took recorded a net loss of $65 million, due largely to its $775 million acquisition of robot maker Kiva Systems, which the company is using to improve its fulfillment centers.
Sales were strong, up 29% from the same period a year ago to $12.83 million, and operating income of $107 million, about half what it recorded in Q2 2011.
The company says revenue would have grown 32%, but were hurt by year over year changes in foreign exchange rates.
International sales, which includes the UK, Germany, Japan, France, China, Italy and Spain, were up 22% to $5.51 billion.
Sales of media, which account for less than half of revenue as of 2010, grew more modestly to $4.12 billion, a 13% increase from Q2 2011.
The company noted that the Kindle Fire remains the companys bestselling product since its launch (though it makes no money on the device itself), and that 20 of the top 100 top selling Kindle titles were from Kindle Direct Publishing authors.
It also highlighted the expansion of Prime Instant Video to 18,000 movies and TV episodes, thanks to new agreements with Paramount Pictures and MGM, and its new compatibility with Xbox 360.
Looking ahead to the third quarter, Amazon forecasts an increase in net sales between $12.9 billion and $14.3 billion between 19% and 31% growth year over year.
Net interest income increased $45 million compared with the year ago quarter, primarily due to growth in both non FDIC covered loans and securities, as well as a more favorable mix of total earning assets.
The company is expecting an operating income loss of between $350 million and $50 million, a sharp fall from the $79 million in positive operating income it recorded in Q3 2011, and $268 million it reported in Q3 2010.
Analysts were expecting operating income of $120 million for the third quarter.
Earlier Thursday, a Forrester study showed that more shoppers were turning to Amazon over Google when looking to purchase something online.
Amy Unwin is a business journalist based in Sydney, Australia. Amy has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Amy spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.
