In a quarter when Amazon’s (S AMZN) stock price hit a record high, the company delivered a loss in its earnings report Thursday afternoon even as revenues rose. Earnings were -$0.02 per share, or a loss of $7 million, on revenue of $15.7 billion, compared to earnings of $0.01 per share, or $7 million, on revenue of $12.83 billion this time last year.

Analysts had expected earnings of $0.06 per share on revenues of $15.7 billion.

Amazon’s operating income, which analysts watch closely because they worry about Amazon’s razor-thin margins, fell 26 percent to $79 million. This time last year, it was $107 million.

Amazon’s stock rose to a record $308.69 earlier this month. This wasn’t precipitated by one big event, but July was a good month for Amazon in part because a U.S. federal judge found Apple (s AAPL) guilty of conspiring with publishers to fix ebook prices at…

View original post 428 more words

Amazon launches interview series on Kindle Singles; first up: President of Israel

26 July 2013 by particularkev

Gigaom

Amazon (s AMZN) on Thursday launched “The Kindle Singles Interview,” a series of “major long-form interviews with iconic figures and world leaders.”

First up is an interview with Israeli president Shimon Peres by journalist David Samuels, a contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine. The interview, which retails for $0.99, was produced in association with Tablet Magazine, an online daily that focuses on Jewish news and culture. An interview with the president of Israel does not seem like a particularly splashy way to launch the series, but this program could be a way for Amazon to team up with various media outlets and get more content from them in the future.

Kindle Singles, which Amazon launched in 2011, focuses on “compelling ideas expressed at their natural length” and sells works that are generally longer than a magazine article but shorter than a book, most priced between $0.99 and $2.99. There are now 400…

View original post 62 more words