Amazon on Tuesday reported its fourth-quarter 2012 fiscal results, noting that net sales had increased 27 percent to $61.09 billion for all of 2012, but that net loss also climbed to $39 billion, compared to net income of $631 million in 2011.
For the fourth quarter alone, net profit fell 45 percent to $97 million, and its earnings-per-share were 21 cents, compared to analysts estimates of 27 percent, as USA Today noted. In its forward-looking guidance, Amazon told investors to expect further losses, with operating income anywhere between a loss of $285 million to a net income of $65 million in the first quarter of 2013.
In the earnings release, the company also reported that its Kindle Fire HD tablet, released in September 2012, was the highest-selling single product across all those available on the Amazon website, but did not break out sales numbers.