Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Harry magic for Amazon...


Aided by Harry Potter Fans, Amazon Triples Its Profit



Published: July 25, 2007 from NYTimes.com

SAN FRANCISCO, July 24 — Some of Harry Potter’s magic has rubbed off on Amazon.com. The company, based in Seattle, announced today that its second-quarter net income increased more than threefold on revenue that rose 35 percent.

The news pushed up the company’s stock in after-hours trading to a level it has not reached since February 2000, during the heyday of the dot-com boom.

The results come four days after Amazon delivered 2.2 million copies of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the final installment in the blockbuster fantasy series. Amazon will count that revenue next quarter, but interest in the book helped drive 8 percent more traffic to the site in the most recent quarter, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Other purchases that Potter fans tacked on counted toward Amazon’s quarter, which ended June 30.

The online retailer reported net income of $78 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with $22 million, or 5 cents a diluted share, in the same period last year.

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