Monday April 9, 7:45 am Eastern Time
Press Release
Amazon.com Releases Preliminary First Quarter Highlights -- Sales Exceed $695 Million, Fueled in Part by Continued Strong Growth in Electronics
Pro Forma Operating Loss Slightly Below $50 Million; Reconfirms 2001 Guidance
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 9, 2001-- Amazon.com, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMZN - news) today announced the following preliminary results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2001 (all comparisons are to the first quarter of 2000):
Net sales are expected to exceed $695 million, an increase of more than 21% over net sales of $574 million, fueled by strong growth in electronics and international.
Gross profit is expected to exceed $175 million, an increase of over 35% compared to gross profit of $128 million.
Pro forma operating loss is expected to be slightly less than $50 million compared to a pro forma operating loss of $99 million. Pro forma net loss is expected to be $0.22 per share or less, an improvement over pro forma net loss of $0.35 per share.
U.S. books, music and video gross profit is expected to increase more than 30% on very slight sales growth.
Cash and marketable securities are expected to be over $640 million, and the company continues to expect cash and marketable securities to be over $900 million at December 31, 2001.
Net loss is expected to be less than $255 million, down from a net loss of $308 million. Excluding this quarter's portion of the previously announced restructuring charge, the net loss is expected to be less than $150 million.
Annualized inventory turnover is expected to be approximately 12, up from 9 in the prior year.
In addition, the company reiterated its 2001 guidance.
``We'd like to again thank our customers for an excellent quarter,'' said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com chief executive officer. ``For the fifth consecutive quarter we saw substantial improvement in our operations and bottom-line performance. Electronics demonstrated especially strong growth and improvements.''
Amazon.com expects to release complete first-quarter 2001 results after market close on Tuesday, April 24, 2001. A conference call to discuss first quarter 2001 financial results and 2001 business outlook will be Webcast live on Tuesday, April 24, 2001, at 5:00 p.m. EDT/2:00 p.m. PDT. This conference call will be available at www.amazon.com/ir through June 30, 2001, and will contain forward-looking statements and other material information. |
