Update:Amazon CFO:N. America Media Sales Flat On Videogame Slowdown
24 Juillet 2009 - 12:52AM
Dow Jones News
Falling sales of videogames and consoles contributed to
Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) weaker-than-expected second-quarter North
American revenue growth, the Internet retailer's chief financial
officer said Thursday.
CFO Tom Szkutak said the decline in sales reflected an
industry-wide slowdown in videogames and consoles in the quarter.
He noted that video sales were being compared with a very strong
quarter in 2008, during which a number of the year's top videogame
titles hit the market.
The company reported that North American revenue grew 13% to
$2.45 billion. That compared with 21% growth in the first quarter
of this year. Szkutak said North American media revenue was flat at
$1.15 billion, with declines in some categories, particularly
videogames and videogame consoles, offset by growth in books.
Szkutak made his comments in a conference call with analysts
after the Internet retailer reported second-quarter revenue that
fell a fraction short of Wall Street forecasts.
Wall Street investors, who have driven up Amazon shares up 83%
this year because it has typically outperformed the ecommerce
market, were spooked by the company's results. Amazon' shares were
down 6.9% to $87.40 in after-hours trading.
"This is a revenue story, and Amazon's revenue was not perfect
enough," said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
Szkutak also said he the company saw a lot of opportunity in the
acquisition of online footware retailer Zappos.com, but he
downplayed suggestions the deal might generate operational
synergies.
He said Zappos made a small profit on net revenue of $635
million last year, but he decline to say whether the deal would be
accretive or dilutive to Amazon next year.
Chief Executive Jeff Bezos did not participate in the conference
call.
-By Scott Morrison, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-6118;
scott.morrison@dowjones.com