Amazon.com misses Q4 numbers, but sales soar

Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) posted a wider-than-expected loss in its fourth quarter Wednesday, losing $185 million, or 55 cents a share, on sales of $676 million. However, analysts weren't terribly concerned. First Call consensus expected the online retailer to lose 48 cents a share, but many analysts were projecting a loss of between 53 cents and 58 cents a share due to a series of inventory writedowns. Full story. -- Larry Barrett, ZDNet Inter@ctive Investor