• The New York Times, Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:47 AM

Thanks to a strong retail business -- combined with promising tablet and Web service efforts -- analysts have high hopes for Amazon. Too high, in fact, as company shares slumped in after-hours trading on news of a 35% revenue gain last quarter. “Most retailers would die happy with such a jump,” notes The New York Times. “But for the e-commerce leader, sales were nearly a billion dollars short of what analysts had been expecting.” What went wrong? Video games sales, for one, along with supply issues from flooding in Thailand, suggests NYT. “And maybe there was a bit of backlash,” it writes.

In December, Amazon caused a stir by encouraging customers to use a price-checking app while shopping in stores, and then return to Amazon for a better deal. “Booksellers, who have long felt themselves in the retailer’s cross hairs, were particularly offended,” writes NYT. “A tentative ‘buy local’ movement sprang up.” Looking ahead, some analysts might also perceive that Amazon’s growth prospects are limited. In the near term, however, Amazon warned that it could lose money, offering a range between $100 million in operating income and a $200 million loss, NYT reports.

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