[username444]

Not really. They were profitable, they just invested heavily in infrastructure (warehouses) and developing new services (AWS).

They may have been unattractive by wall street's standards (eg. Pay outs) but they were far from unprofitable.

[300bps]

Not really. They were profitable, they just invested heavily in infrastructure (warehouses) and developing new services (AWS).

Amazon lost about $2 billion in their first six years of operations.

And Walmart's online presence would be profitable now if they weren't investing heavily in infrastructure (20 fulfillment centers trying to catch up to Amazon's 110) and new services (online catalog to match Amazon's).

[simonebrunozzi]

That's a really big claim. No, technically they were not profitable for several years. Then, in the last 10-12 years, you are right that they invested heavily in R&D and everyone knows that one story.