Amazon posts $3.2 billion profit as it goes through multiple rounds of layoffs

CNN

Amazon has started the new year in the black.

The ecommerce giant reported on Thursday a profit for the first three months of $3.2 billion, a huge improvement from the $3.8 billion loss in the quarter before and well above analysts' expectations.

Amazon (AMZN), which has been reducing costs in recent months, is now turning a profit. The company announced two rounds layoffs and cancelled products. It also canceled physical store expansions.

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Amazon is also growing in key areas despite the lingering fears of recession that could affect corporate and consumer spending.

Revenue increased by 9% in the second quarter compared to the previous year. Amazon's net sales are expected to increase between 5% and 10 percent from the previous year, or between $127 billion and 133 billion.

Jesse Cohen is a senior analyst for Investing.com. He said that the results show that Amazon's ongoing cost-cutting efforts are having a positive effect on its business prospects. Amazon's strong Q2 revenue guidance is an indication that the company might be coming out of its woods.

Amazon Web Services has been a major profit generator for the company for many years. The quarter saw a double-digit growth in percentage, another positive sign for the overall business.

AWS segment revenues increased by 16% over the previous year to $21.4 billion. This comes after the sales growth had slowed down in the previous quarter as cloud customers tightened up their purse strings because of uncertainty over the economy.

In a statement that accompanied the earnings announcement, CEO Andy Jassy stated, 'While our AWS Business navigates companies to spend more cautiously in this global environment, we continue prioritizing building long-term relationships with customers.'