Yeah, yeah. And I said here that given seasonality on top of decent growth, 50% would be a disappointment. The growth was impressive I'll grant, but hardly surprising. Gee, now they only need 90% per annum growth for the next three years to reach $1 billion in 2000.
The details are interesting though. Gross margins ticked up a fraction to 19.5% from 18.9% last Q, but are still far short of the year ago 22.3%. Operating expenses range from the relatively fixed but small G&A line to the very significant and very variable Mktg & Sales line. With a little work, might be able to figure out how they'll "make it up on volume". Hard to believe though that one could sell $66 million of books and lose more money than on $38 million of sales.
Another interesting note - from 9/30 to 12/31, liquidity, measured by net current assets (current assets less current liabilities and debt), dropped in half from $32.7mm to $16.8mm. The net loss is part of the change and fixed assets (the distribution centers) used more, but they also booked deferred charges of $2.2mm. Anybody know what that is? Had it been in expenses, the loss would have been 48 cents. In any case, contrast this real liquidity with Bezos' comments, bragging about increasing cash and investments to $120mm.
Well, I guess none of this matters anyway. Report big sales and squeeze the shorts. Who cares if they can ever make money.
Wanna see what happens if sales are flat for a quarter (q-to-q)? Stick around.
Bob |
