Amazon looking pretty good after all

Amazon.com shares were little changed today after the online retailer upped its annual revenue forecast to around $10bn and said it plans to dial back spending growth in the latter half of the year.

The Seattle-based retailer gave its outlook when it reported quarterly profit that fell 35%, hurt by the cost of employee stock options and higher operating expenses, even as sales surged 20%.

And it looks like their product diversification strategy as well as international operations are helping drive the sales growth. And Amazon is soon to launch their digital content services as they offer an online music service to rival iTunes and their video on demand service to rival Google Video as well as e-books.

All in all I would say that Amazon looks pretty well set as they go in to their seasonally quieter summer months.