NEW YORK – Amazon reported its first quarterly loss since 2015, its money-making juggernaut stalled by a slowdown in pandemic-induced online shopping and a huge write-down of its investment in an electric-vehicle startup.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant’s stock fell 9% in after-hours trading, AP reported.
Amazon reported a loss of $3.84 billion, or $7.56 a share, for the first three months of the year. A year ago, it reported a profit of $8.1 billion, or $15.79 a share, for the first quarter. Wall Street analysts expected a profit of $8.35 a share in the latest quarter, according to FactSet.
The ocean of red ink in Amazon’s report came mostly from the company’s accounting for a $7.6 billion loss in value of its stock investment in Rivian Automotive.
Rivian went public in late 2021 and its stock traded at close $180 at one point. It closed Thursday at $32.18. Ford Motor Co. reported a similar write-down of the value of its Rivian investment Wednesday.
Amazon’s e-commerce business also reported an operating loss of $1.57 billion in North America and $1.28 billion internationally.
Meanwhile, sales at Amazon´s cloud-computing business, which helps power the online operations of Netflix, McDonald´s and other companies, grew 37% in the quarter. And sales in its advertising business, where brands pay to get their products to show up first when shoppers search on Amazon´s site, rose 25%.
Discussion about this post