, Columnist
Stop Worrying and Love Amazon's Meager Profits
Heavy investment has worked before, and it can work again.
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Just when everyone thought Amazon.com Inc. was steering into a lush forest of profits, it veered back to its desert of barren earnings. It has been smart to let Amazon drive wherever it wants to go, so investors should stop expecting the profit bounty.
After about nine months of tidy profits -- by Amazon's low standards -- here is the best illustration that the company is back in its familiar mode of investment spending over profits: The Amazon Web Services cloud segment generated more operating income than the entire company: $861 million compared with $575 million for Amazon as a whole. (Amazon's international operations posted negative operating income, which dragged down the total.)