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In a release on April 23, the company noted that operating cash flow was $1.76 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $1.04 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2008. Free cash flow increased 82 percent to $1.43 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $0.79 billion for the trailing twelve months ended March 31, 2008.
Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards outstanding totaled 447 million on March 31, compared with 435 million a year ago.
Net sales increased 18 percent to $4.89 billion in the first quarter, compared with $4.13 billion in first quarter 2008. Excluding the $268 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales would have grown 25 percent compared with first quarter 2008.
Operating income increased 23 percent to $244 million in the first quarter, compared with $198 million in first quarter 2008. Excluding the $32 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, operating income would have grown 39 percent compared with first quarter 2008.
Net income increased 24 percent to $177 million in the first quarter, or $0.41 per diluted share, compared with net income of $143 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, in first quarter 2008.
"We're grateful and excited that Kindle sales have exceeded our most optimistic expectations," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.
Highlights
- Amazon.com introduced Kindle 2, the new reading device that offers Kindle's wireless delivery of content in a new slim design with longer battery life, faster page turns, a crisper display, and over seven times more storage. The Kindle Store offers more than 270,000 books, including 104 of 112 New York Times Best Sellers, plus top U.S. and international newspapers and magazines.
- The Company launched "Kindle for iPhone and iPod touch," a free application that allows customers to enjoy Kindle titles on the iPhone and iPod touch. Amazon's Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes customers' bookmarks across their original Kindle, Kindle 2, iPhone and iPod touch.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the public beta of Amazon Elastic MapReduce. Utilizing a hosted Hadoop framework, this new service enables businesses, researchers, data analysts and developers to easily and cost-effectively process vast amounts of data using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
- AWS introduced Reserved Instances, an additional pricing option for Amazon EC2 that gives developers the opportunity to make a low, one-time payment to reserve capacity and further reduce hourly usage charges.
- AWS and IBM announced a relationship that will allow developers to run some of IBM's most popular software on top of Amazon EC2. Customers can pay by the hour for the software, bring their own existing licenses with no additional software fee, or use free versions in the cloud for development and test purposes.
- North America segment sales, representing the Company's U.S. and Canadian sites, were $2.58 billion, up 21 percent from first quarter 2008.
- International segment sales, representing the Company's U.K., German, Japanese, French and Chinese sites, were $2.31 billion, up 15 percent from first quarter 2008. Excluding the unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, International sales grew 28 percent.
- Worldwide Media sales grew 7 percent to $2.72 billion, compared with $2.54 billion in first quarter 2008.
- Worldwide Electronics & Other General Merchandise sales grew 38 percent to $2.05 billion, compared with $1.48 billion in first quarter 2008, and increased to 42 percent of worldwide net sales compared with 36 percent.
- Items shipped on behalf of sellers who utilized Fulfillment by Amazon increased by more than 300 percent from the prior year.
- The Company launched its latest mobile application, "Amazon App for BlackBerry." Available for free download on any BlackBerry with a track ball, the application offers customers a quick and simple way to find, discover and buy products on Amazon.com.
- Amazon launched its MP3 music service in Germany, offering more than 5 million DRM-free songs from all four major labels and hundreds of independent labels that can be played on any MP3 player.
- Amazon.com's Video Game store beta-launched the Amazon Video Games Trade-In service, allowing customers to receive an Amazon.com Gift Card in exchange for eligible video games.
Financial Guidance
The following forward-looking statements reflect Amazon.com's expectations as of April 23. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce and the various factors detailed below.
Second Quarter 2009 Guidance
- Net sales are expected to be between $4.30 billion and $4.75 billion, or to grow between 6 percent and 17 percent compared with second quarter 2008.
- Operating income is expected to be between $110 million and $190 million, or decline between 49 percent and 12 percent compared with second quarter 2008. The second quarter 2008 results include the $53 million non-cash gain recognized on the sale of the Company's European DVD rental assets.
- This guidance includes approximately $90 million for stock-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets, and it assumes, among other things, that no additional business acquisitions or investments are concluded and that there are no further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates.
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