why investors focused on the company's sales growth. With a stock valued as high as Amazon's, they are looking for any sign of a slowdown as an excuse to sell.
Meanwhile, Amazon's expenses are increasing. Operating expenses grew 38 percent to $17.2 billion. The company has been investing heavily in new sales-fulfillment centers. Investments such as these cut into profits during all of last year.
Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. said that its net income was $177 million, or 38 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That's down 57 percent from $416 million, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier. Earnings dropped, the company said, as it continued to invest in sales fulfillment centers and increased its workforce by 67 percent from a year earlier.
For the current quarter, Amazon is forecasting $12 billion to $13.4 billion in revenue. Analysts were expecting $13.42 billion. The company also said it may record an operating loss for the quarter. Its outlook was in the range of a loss of $200 million to a profit of $100 million for the three months ending in March.
Sales at Amazon's media business, which includes books, DVDs, and content consumed on the Kindle, grew 15 percent to $6 billion. Sales from electronics and other general merchandise, which includes the Kindle devices, jumped 48 percent to $10.9 billion. For all of 2011, Amazon earned $631 million, down from $1.15 billion a year earlier. Revenue grew to $48.1 billion from $34.2 billion.
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