Amazon.com Inc. is struggling to make money as quickly as it spends it

taken from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204740904577195371567545142.html

Amazon.com Inc. is struggling to make money as quickly as it spends it, putting the squeeze on the online retailer's latest financial results and crimping its outlook.

Amazon says revenue rose 35% to $17.4 billion, about one billion short of what analysts were looking for in the e-tailer's holiday quarter. Dan Gallagher talks with Stacey Delo about the company's miss and what's ahead.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant on Tuesday said its fourth-quarter revenue rose 35% from a year earlier, but profit plunged 57% as the company continued to spend on warehouses, technology and its Kindle electronic devices. Amazon's operating expenses rose 38% in the quarter from a year earlier.

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Amazon also forecast lower-than-expected sales in the current quarter, estimating first-quarter revenue of $12 billion to $13.4 billion. Analysts had been expecting $13.4 billion. The company said it could report an operating loss for the first quarter.

Amazon's shares fell 8.8% in after-hours trading to $177.31, after ending 4 p.m. trading at $194.44.

For more than a year, the Seattle-based company's formula was quick sales growth—often more than 40%—paired with high spending. Amazon's latest results surprised analysts because while the retailer continued to spend, the revenue growth didn't follow. The fourth quarter, which encompasses the crucial holiday shopping season, is also a barometer of Amazon's performance.

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"It's a disappointment against relatively high expectations," said Steve Weinstein, an analyst with ITG Investment Research, adding that Amazon's spending "reflects a company making a lot of investments in their business."

In a conference call with analysts, Amazon's finance chief, Tom Szkutak, defended the company's spending. "We feel very good about the investments that we're making," he said. "We're still experiencing very high growth."

Amazon did widen its operating margin to 1.5%, up from 0.7% a quarter earlier but down from 3.8% a year earlier.

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Amazon also continues to outpace the growth of overall Internet sales, which Forrester Research estimates are rising at roughly 10% a year.

Amazon has evolved from its roots as an online peddler of physical books to an Internet equivalent of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. In recent years, it has also banked on its Kindle devices as a revenue stream. Amazon has sold its black-and-white Kindle reading devices since 2007. Last fall, it introduced the Kindle Fire, a $199 tablet computer that is cheaper thanApple Inc.'s market-leading iPad.

Amazon declined to reveal precise Kindle sales figure for the holiday quarter, saying only that sales of all Kindle devices increased 177% in the holiday period compared with a year earlier. Jordan Rohan, a Stifel Nicolaus analyst, estimated that Amazon sold six million Kindle Fires in the fourth quarter.

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For the fourth quarter, Amazon reported a profit of $177 million, down from $416 million a year earlier. Revenue was $17.43 billion, compared with $12.95 billion last year. For all of 2011, Amazon earned $631 million in profit on $48.1 billion in sales, compared with $1.2 billion in profit and $34.2 billion in revenue a year earlier. Operating expenses rose 44% to $47.2 billion. Part of that spending ramp-up comes from Amazon's staggering hiring rate. It ended the year with 56,200 employees, up 67% from 2010.

Amazon is known to sacrifice profits for revenue. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster estimated that the company loses at least $11 per customer on its Prime program, which offers unlimited quick shipping to customers who pay a $79 annual fee. Online-retail analysts estimate that Amazon recoups some of that cost because Prime members triple their spending on Amazon after joining the program.

The retailer also sells its Kindle gadget for a loss, losing as much as $15 per device, Mr. Munster estimated. Amazon makes up for that by selling digital books, music, software and video on those devices.

Amazon can also offset some losses by letting third-party retailers sell products on its marketplace. Mr. Szkutak said Amazon has made improvements to the marketplace to help both buyers and sellers. "It was great for the bottom line," he said.

Analysts said Amazon's disappointing fourth-quarter revenue came from its core retail business because Kindle sales appeared strong. Eric Best, chief executive of Mercent Corp., which helps retailers such as Office Depot and the Home Shopping Network sell goods on Amazon and other sites, said overall online-retail sales were slightly below what sellers were hoping for.

Mr. Best said part of that was because of general economic weakness, while generally good weather caused more people to shop at brick-and-mortar retailers.

Our Website Down again !

It has been down for a few hours since early morning

Our Hosting company said it's their server problem. Emerge are still working on it.

Very sorry !

I hope you will come back again to buy

Sorry, Our Website Down Again

We are waiting for our hosting , Emerge System Sdn Bhd , to rectify the problem.

Hopefully doesn't take long

our Ebay account Moresales888 has been suspended by stupid reason

The Stupid Reason is

we used some celebrity names in our posting

which Ebay prohibited as in http://pages.ebay.com.my/help/policies/intellectual-property-ov.html

But there are still thousands of posting with name of Rooney, Obama, Eminem

Ebay.com may not suspend them, because Ebay.com need to posting fee.

However Ebay.com.my is free, therefore Malaysia sellers are first to be suspended

Anyway, our main selling is www.MoreSales.com.my.

Those who have bought from us via ebay, please continue to support us . We will accept paypal for buyer protection.

Thank you.

New CIMB scam

Hypmall discontinued

Good to know one competitor is dead :)

Woman loses RM1,900 from Maybank2U

Friday January 15, 2010

Woman loses RM1,900 from online account

By LIM CHIA YING

ONLINE banking is a convenience to many busy people. However, it brought misery to a 26-year-old woman, who wished to be known only as Jenn, who lost RM1,900 from her one-month-old account on Dec 2.

Jenn said the amount was transferred to a third party account without her knowledge after she had logged into the bank’s system using her logon and password.

“One morning in early December, I received an email from Maybank stating that I had a login with an incorrect password in the Maybank system.

“After closing the email, I logged into the system and entered the correct password that it needed.

“However, on the afternoon of the same day, I received an SMS fromMaybank2u.com that RM1,900 from my account that I had opened at the Maybank Taman Midah branch had been transferred to a third party account,” Jenn said at a press conference called by Bukit Bintang MP Fong Kui Lun.

She has since lodged a police report at the Batu 9 Cheras police station.

In the police report, she said when she went to the branch at 2pm the same day, a bank officer named Raymond Lim had given her the funds transfer statement in which she saw that her money had been transferred to an account belonging to a Malay woman named Mayana Muhamad.

Jenn called up the Maybank headquarters to seek an explanation on the issue, and was disappointed that the personnel were not helpful and only provided a written reply to her one month later.

“I had been using another bank, where security was much tighter, before using Maybank’s online banking when I changed job,” she said, adding that she had created the account only in November.

“The RM1,900 was almost all my savings! The officer in the headquarters told me that the police investigation must be completed before action could be taken.

“He also told me that although the bank had contacted the third party, the woman was not cooperating so they could not do anything. Would she cooperate if she is the culprit?” asked the frustrated Jenn, claiming that the bank personnel had even told her there was a queue of other fraud victims.

In Maybank’s written reply to Jenn, virtual banking cyber security manager Baizura Ahmad wrote that following a comprehensive investigation of the said transaction, they had found that a valid user name and password were used to access her account viaMaybank2u.com.

“Our findings revealed that the internet banking username and password were used on Dec 2 to successfully make a login to your Maybank account via Maybank2u.com,” Baizura had stated.

“A Transaction Authorisation Code (TAC) was requested through yourMaybank2u.com account and a valid TAC was successfully sent to your mobile number. This TAC was then used to create a favourite third party account, and subsequently, the amount of RM1,900 was made to the favourite third party account from your account on the same day.

“Based on our investigation into our system, our records showed there was no system failure, problem or any breach of security ofMaybank2u.com in processing the above activities at the mentioned date and time involving the above account.

“In view of this, we very much regret to inform that the bank is unable to accede to your request of the said amount,” the reply said.

In the reply, the bank reiterated that it does not send any email, SMS or make telephone calls to customers to request for personal details, account details of TAC number.

“Customers are also reminded never to disclose their account and banking information to anyone. The bank provides safety information and alerts in Maybank2u.com as well as through our other delivery channels,” the reply stated.

Jenn said she felt helpless on the issue and had since terminated her online account with the bank.

Fong said he would be writing to Bank Negara on the urgent need to monitor the security of online banking.

“Since the matter involved a transfer within the same bank, and the person’s name and account number are known, there is no reason why the bank is unable to do anything.

“The money was transferred without the victim’s knowledge, so it is only right that settlement is made to her.

“I also hope the Finance Minister will respond to this as such a case can result in the public losing confidence in online banking,” he said.

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2010/1/15/central/5451096&sec=central