Amazon.com loss widens 200 per cent

Amazon.com's loss continues to widen - this time by a whopping 200 per cent. And the e-tailer recorded its first quarter-on-quarter drop in revenue. Still, the company's love of the red has clearly reached such proportions that Wall Street expected it to announce an even deeper Q1 loss. Amazon.com said its US books, music and video sales operations lost $2.4 million on revenues of $401.14 million. The company claimed book sales showed a profit, but it didn't specify by how much. Its other departments lost $69.4 million on sales of $97.3 million. Overseas, Amazon.com's ventures lost a combined $27.4 million of sales of $75.1 million. Pro forma net losses for the three-month period - excluding investment and other charges - were $121 million, which amounts to earnings of 35 cents a share. Analysts had the loss pegged at 36 cents a share, according to First Call's poll. Its margins remain static, at 22 per cent for this and the previous quarter. ® Related Story Amazon sells Phantom Menace for 12p