It still comes as a big surprise to most people that Amazon never posts profits.* Any recent profit they've shown is a result of their Web Services. Basically Bezos's philosophy is to invest any surplus cash in new infrastructure, acquisitions and keeping low prices by cutting margins to the bone. Apparently Bezos really does believe this and that the customer must always come first. In this way, Amazons' revenue and turnover grows astronomically year on year. Although as was pointed out on the first ever Dragon's Den - turnover doesn't equal profit. As it seems to be generally understood, the reason the share price keeps going up is on the basis that if the worst comes to the worst, give Amazons low borrowings the assets and goodwill of the business exceed the share capital by a wide margin - even at the current share price. However the thought has just struck me - if all these assets - warehouses - systems and goodwill can only ever support a business which will never actually turn profit, then they're actually worth exactly zilch.
michael adams
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