Amazon profits on Kindle, online buying
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Bill Radke: Wall Street is still dark. But in Europe this morning, shares in a little company called Amazon are up almost 15 percent. Last night, the online king said its third-quarter profit leapt 62 percent. Marketplace’s Jeremy Hobson joins us live from New York. Good morning.
Jeremy Hobson: Good morning Bill.
Radke: Why is Amazon crushing it in the earnings department?
Hobson: Well it’s partly because of the Kindle, the e-reader. Amazon says that was its top-selling product, which probably explains why everybody’s trying to come out with an e-reader of their own. You’ll remember just earlier this week, Barnes & Noble said it was going to start making the Nook. And by the way, in response to that, Amazon said yesterday it’s going to cut the price of the Kindle to match the Nook’s starting price of $259. E-readers aside, though, there’s also something else going on, which is a shift toward online purchases in this recession. Amazon, already the largest online retailer, is being helped by that. They say that will help them going into the holiday season as well.
Radke: And on that note, I saw something — a headline about the Amazon-Wal-mart book price war going on. What’s the latest?
Hobson: Yeah, that refers to a complaint that’s come from the American Booksellers Association, which is angry that Amazon.com and Wal-mart.com have gotten into a price war. You know you go into a bookstore now you can get a book for $35, but now you can go on these Web sites and you can get them for like $9. So the Booksellers Association says this could put smaller booksellers out of business. It wants the Justice Department to investigate.
Radke: Marketplace’s Jeremy Hobson live in New York. Thank you, sir.
Hobson: Thank you, Bill.
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