Amazon.com sales rocket

Mega online bookstore Amazon.com has reported fourth quarter sales of $250 million -- almost four times what it made during the same period last year -- but it's unlikely to lower net losses, the company has warned. Joy Covey, Amazon's CFO, blamed the disappointing news on "aggressive product pricing" and increased fulfilment costs as staff worked round the clock to meet what she claimed was a massive surge in demand for books, videos, CDs and last minute gifts. Amazon attracted over a million new customers during the run-up to the holiday period and shipped more than 7.5 million items -- more than the company moved in the whole of 1997. ®