Amazon's Q1 revenues rise 23% to $19.7B

Amazon.com Inc, the largest e-commerce company in the world, has said its revenues for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014 rose 23 per cent to $19.74 billion from $16.07 billion last year. Net income for the quarter increased to $108 million from $82 million last year.

The firm, however, said that its operating income for the quarter declined 19 per cent to $146 million from the previous year.

Amazon has also announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire comiXology, a provider of digital comics. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2014.

"We get our energy from inventing on behalf of customers, and 2014 is off to a kinetic start," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "Our device team launched Fire TV, offering great content, including our recently announced exclusive deal with HBO, and innovative features like unified voice search, which we're delighted is being adopted by so many new partners, including Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu Plus, Crackle and Showtime Anytime. The team is working hard to keep Fire TV in stock."

In the first quarter of this year, Amazon also launched Prime Pantry, a new option available only to Prime members offering exclusive access to everyday essentials in non-bulk sizes - ranging from breakfast foods and popular soft drinks, to cleaning and personal care items.