Amazon's revenue up 26% to $75 Bn but profit down 30%; Bezos says $4 Bn Covid cost coming

Amid COVID-19 crisis, tech giant Amazon’s net sales increased to 26% to $75.5 billion in first quarter, exceeding Wall Street’s expectations, as people around world continued to rely on company’s massive e-commerce infrastructure. However, while revenue rose significantly, profits fell more than 30% to $2.5 billion, or $5.01 per share, as costs of scaling up for pandemic weighed on Seattle tech giant’s bottom line.

RE | NFL renews Thursday night streaming deal with Amazon

Amazon to spend $4 billion on COVID-19 initiatives

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos me it clear that it’s company is only getting started and informed its shareholders that it will spend $4 billion in current quarter on initiatives related to COVID-19.

“Providing for customers and protecting employees as this crisis continues for more months is going to take skill, humility, invention, and money. If you’re a shareowner in Amazon, you may want to take a seat, because we’re t thinking small,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a lengthy statement in company’s earnings news release.

RE | Trump tre office ds Amazon to ‘torious markets’ list

'Hardest time we’ve ever faced': Bezos

Bezos furr said that crisis “is demonstrating aptability and durability of Amazon’s business as never before, but it’s also hardest time we’ve ever faced".

"Under rmal circumstances, in this coming Quarter 2, we’d expect to make some $4 billion or more in operating profit. But se aren’t rmal circumstances. Inste, we expect to spend entirety of that $4 billion, and perhaps a bit more, on COVID-related expenses getting products to customers and keeping employees safe," Bezos said. 

"This includes investments in personal protective equipment, enhanced cleaning of our facilities, less efficient process paths that better allow for effective social distancing, higher ws for hourly teams, and hundreds of millions to develop our own COVID-19 testing capabilities. re is a lot of uncertainty in world right w, and best investment we can make is in safety and well-being of our hundreds of thousands of employees," he ded.

RE | Parineeti Chopra's top 5 movies on Amazon Prime Video to watch during lockdown

Amazon has grown to more than 935,000 employees worldwide, including 95,000 new hires in just past few weeks, quickly rendering number in its first-quarter earnings report out of date as it grows in response to global pandemic.

RE | Saif Ali Khan expects a "Hotter" title for Amazon's Dilli, mentions House of Cards