[dgreensp]

At the start of the article it cites Amazon’s “declining profits,” but later it says Amazon’s $386 billion a year in profits is growing at a slowing pace and might start growing by less than 20% year over year. What hardship.

[kennend3]

I think by "declining profits" they are referencing a specific line of business, not "Amazon" proper.

Look at Alexa as an example.. It has racked up substantial losses yet "Amazon" is profitable.

I've often heard that Amazon's retail devision isn't a big money maker?

I think people are seeing actions Amazon is taking to shore-up its retail side (less generous return policy, their "Free for all " market place, commingling inventory..).

[luckylion]

They've mistaken net sales for profit. If Amazon had a profit of $386bn last year, I'd expected their market cap to be more then $960bn.

[malfist]

It's a misnomer. Amazon has declining profit _growth_. Meaning our profit grew less last year less than it grew the year before.

But make no mistake, it's still record profit after record profit each year.

But I guess having this year's record profit be only slightly larger than last year's record profit means we need layoffs.

[croes]

Just remember, for companies less profit growth is equivalent with less profit