Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Shares Outperforming, Up 2.30%
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares are outperforming this morning and was recently trading higher by 2.26% at $192.69 as signed a 10-year deal to publish Ian Fleming’s 14 James Bond books in North America.
Late Tuesday, the company announced that the company has acquired a ten-year license for the North American rights to the print and digital James Bond backlist, as well as James Bond author Ian Fleming’s two nonfiction titles.
All of the books will be reissued by Amazon Publishing’s mystery and thriller imprint, Thomas & Mercer, starting this summer.
“We believe that Amazon Publishing has the ability to place the books back at the heart of the Bond brand, balancing traditional publishing routes with new technologies and new ways of reaching our readers,” Ian Fleming Publications managing director Corinne Turner said in the release.
As per reports from The Wall Street Journal the Bond e-books “will be initially available only via Amazon’s Kindle e-book store.” That means that Barnes & Noble will likely refuse to carry the print books.
The James Bond books have sold 100 million copies worldwide. Of the 16 titles that Amazon is acquiring, the “newest,” Octopussy and the Living Daylights, was published in 1966. Daniel Craig appears in a new Bond movie, “Skyfall,” this autumn — it is the twenty-third Bond film and is not based on a Fleming title.
The company is scheduled to report its first quarter 2012 financial results on April 26, 2012. Analysts are estimating the company to report a profit of 7 cents a share, down from a year ago profit of 44 cents a share. Revenue is estimated to grow by 30.50% to $12.66 billion, from a year ago revenue of $9.86 billion.
Last quarter, the company had beaten analysts’ estimates by a wide margin and reported 38 cents a share, compared to analysts’ estimates of 17 cents.
So far this year, the stock has jumped over 11% and up 8% over the past one year. The stock has been moving within a range of $166.97-$246.71 over the past 52-week. The stock has a beta of 1.
The stock is trading above its 50-Day Moving Average of $189.23.