Amazon in the crown boom: high sales, high costs



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Flourishing Internet commerce and burgeoning cloud services are giving Amazon strong business growth in the Corona crisis. However, Amazon also has high expenses. That reduces the profit.

Revenue increased 26 percent year-over-year to $ 75.5 billion in the first quarter. However, Amazon also has high expenses due to the pandemic, for example, due to a recruitment campaign in front of the large number of customers in its delivery services. Quarterly earnings fell about 30 percent to $ 2.5 billion.

However, the biggest burdens are yet to come. For the current quarter, Amazon warned of special costs of around $ 4.0 billion due to the crown pandemic. The group plans to invest in its delivery logistics and measures to protect employees. Amazon forecast operating profit in the range of $ 1.5 billion to $ 1.5 billion, predicting an 18 to 28 percent increase in revenue. Amazon emphasized that reliable forecasting is currently difficult.

More course information on Amazon

It is reversed

Outbound restrictions due to the crown pandemic have exploited demand for Amazon delivery services in many regions of the US. USA In the last months. However, the company struggled with the large crowds and was temporarily overwhelmed. Many customers still have to wait longer than usual or cannot place an order with the coveted food delivery services.

Bezos wants to solve these problems with high investments. While American companies are cutting jobs at record speed, Amazon is hiring large-scale employees. In March, it was announced that 100,000 employees would be hired to meet the increased demand. Another 75,000 were hired in April.

But Amazon is also heavily criticized for its working conditions, especially in the crown crisis. The company is accused of not doing enough to protect its employees and repeatedly faces protests. Amazon denies the allegations, but could still run into trouble. For example, Mayor Bill de Blasio and powerful Attorney General Letitia James intervened due to the controversial firing of a strike organizer in New York.

In the era of staying at home and working from home, the company can still rely on its lucrative cloud business, which includes IT services and Internet storage space. Amazon’s flagship AWS web platform, the market leader in cloud services for businesses, increased revenue in the last quarter by nearly a third to $ 10.2 billion. The division’s operating profit even grew about 40 percent to $ 3.1 billion. Amazon’s biggest rival in the cloud, Microsoft, had also reported strong growth in this area the day before.

Bezos heads to 200 billion

The stock initially reacted to the quarterly report with significant price losses. However, Amazon has so far been one of the big winners of the crisis. In the past three months, the stock price has increased by more than 30 percent and hit new records. As a majority shareholder, CEO and founder Jeff Bezos also benefits enormously.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, her wealth has increased by about $ 29 billion to $ 143 billion since the start of the year, meaning she significantly expanded her status as the richest person in the world during the crisis.

ts / dpa

Source: boerse.ard.de


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