Cry them a river

Amazon sinks on results & forecast

Amazon.com forecast a greater-than-expected dip in operating income for the current quarter, a sign of its dedication to building expensive new warehouses and creating video content.

The world’s largest online retailer also reported lower-than-expected fourthquarter revenue and missed Wall Street targets for its closely watched cloud computing unit, sending its shares down more than 3 percent in extended trading on Thursday.

The Seattle-based company is spending heavily to take greater control of its delivery systems as well as expanding its video service around the world. Key to its plan is to entice sign-ups for Amazon Prime, its $99per-year shopping club.

But the pace of investment has sometimes concerned investors.

Amazon forecast firstquarter operating income of $250 million to $900 million, below the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion.

Amazon had reported operating income of $1.1 billion for the same period last year.

Amazon is now producing television shows for Prime subscribers to watch online.

It is developing gadgets with an artificially intelligent assistant, Alexa, so users can buy toilet paper and other goods by voice command.

And it is building out a system of trucks, planes and warehouses so orders are sped to Prime members in two days or less, a conve- nience that few online retailers can afford to match.

Amazon Web Services reported a 47 percent jump in revenue, to $3.54 billion, but fell short of the average analyst estimate of $3.60 billion.

Amazon said its net sales rose 22.4 percent, to $43.74 billion, in the fourth quarter, compared with the average analyst estimate of $44.68 billion.

Amazon’s net income rose to $749 million, or $1.54 per share, from $482 million, or $1 per share, a year earlier.