Amazon’s stock is down over 10 percent in early Friday trading (a decline of almost $40 a share) after reporting a larger than expected loss for their second quarter — and forecasting bigger losses for the next quarter. Second quarter sales grew 23 percent to $19.34 billion, with an operating loss of $15 million, and a net loss of $126 million, or 27 cents a share. Sales were right on target with analysts’ estimates, but the loss was bigger than the consensus guess of 15 cents a share. That earnings miss plus third quarter guidance of a big operating loss of anywhere between […]
Booksellers
Apple Reports Softer iPad Sales, As iTunes Continues Growth
Apple reported third quarter revenue after the close of market on Tuesday, with sales of $37.4 billion (up 6%, largely due to growth in China), and net profit of $7.7 billion. iPad sales of 13.3 million were down 9 percent (from 14.6 million units a year ago), making approximately 227 million iPads sold since launch in spring 2010. The iTunes store segment (which includes their app stores, as well as “revenue from sales of AppleCare, licensing and other services”) rose 12 percent (or almost $500 million), to $4.485 billion for the quarter. Investors were back and forth at first on […]
Google Play Grows Again
Google reported second quarter earnings after the close of the market Thursday. The segment in which they report Google Play sales — “other revenues” — was up 53 percent compared to a year ago, and up 3 percent from the previous quarter. It comprised $1.6 billion for the quarter. The company said “digital sales of apps and content in our Play Store drove the year-over-year growth.” In the investors conference call, the company added that “Google Play continues to grow at breakneck speed across all types of digital content, helping developers and content partners reach users around the world.” At their IO […]
Barnes & Noble To Spin Off Nook As Public Company; Reports Weak Finish to Fiscal 2014
Barnes & Noble announced before the opening of the stock market Wednesday that it intends to split off its Nook Media division from the retail side, creating two separate, publicly traded companies. Shares rose over 10 percent in early morning trading on the news, up to roughly $22.5 a share. The seeds for such a spin-off were laid in the initial creation of Nook Media LLC (which includes details on how BN stores would display and sell Nook devices follow a possible separation). BN hopes to take the steps necessary to complete the separation by the end of March 2015, […]
Books-a-Million Celebrates A Flat First Quarter
Sales eked up $200,000 at Books-A-Million in their fiscal first quarter, ending May 3, reaching $103.8 million for the period. Same-store sales were down 2.5 percent, however, and the net loss of $5.6 million was significantly higher. (A year ago their loss was mitigated by a $2 million tax benefit.) Ceo Terrance Finley was upbeat nonetheless: “Sales in the first half of the quarter were strong driven by the momentum of the fourth quarter book lineup. We saw traffic slow later in the quarter, but we were pleased that we achieved our plan in our core book business, as well […]
With Flat Sales and Bigger Loss, Indigo Sees Improvement on the Horizon
Canada’s dominant bookseller Indigo reported fiscal fourth quarter sales (for the period ending March 29, 2014). Sales nudged up marginally, at $184.3 million CA, but the net loss of $14.4 million was much higher than the loss of $8.2 million a year ago. Those “higher expenses were primarily driven by investments made in relation to the company’s ongoing transformational strategy.” Online sales increased by $2.8 million, or 13.1 percent in the quarter, and same-store sales were up 1.4 percent in their superstores, but fell 3.1 percent in the small-format stores. In a note opening the annual report, ceo Heather Reisman […]