Amazon announced fourth-quarter and full year 2012 earnings report roughly in line with investor expectations Tuesday afternoon. Revenue was up 22 percent, to $ 21.27 billion, for the quarter and the much-watched operating income up 45 percent to $ 405 million. Net income was down 45 percent, to $ 97 million or $ 0.21 per share.
In the release, CEO Jeff Bezos called out ebooks in particular: “We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting. After five years, ebooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast — up approximately 70 percent last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5 percent.”
As usual, the company did not share device sales. It noted that Kindle Fire HD is still “the #1 best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product” on the site, but didn’t refer to specific holiday sales. The company also didn’t issue a press release on holiday sales, leading some to wonder whether device sales were lackluster.
For the full year, revenue was $ 61.09 billion, up 27 percent from 2011. Operating income fell for the full year to $ 676 million, from $ 862 million in 2011. The company saw a net loss of $ 39 million compared to net income of $ 631 million the previous year.
For the first quarter of 2013, the company told investors to expect revenues between $ 15 billion and $ 16.6 billion, with guidance on operating income ranging from -$ 285 million to $ 65 million.
Amazon is holding an investor call at 2 p.m. PT, and we will be on the call.
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