From CNET: Amazon, a company known for spending like a drunken sailor, appears to have sobered up. At least for now.
The world's largest online retailer on Thursday reported unexpectedly strong sales and earnings in the first quarter, blowing out analysts' projections and driving shares up more than 12 percent after hours. Big gains in its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing business helped the company report its fourth-straight profitable quarter and its best-ever quarterly profit.
"I think we may have hit a point where it's going to be hard for them to spend enough to hide all this profitability," said Scot Wingo, executive chairman of e-commerce consultant ChannelAdvisor.
Even as operating expenses surged 25 percent during the quarter, revenue was even stronger. Sales reached $29.1 billion, up 28 percent, while Amazon swung to a profit of $513 million, from a loss of $57 million the year earlier. To put that figure in perspective, Amazon posted a profit of $596 million for all of 2015.
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