Amazon Profit Climbs in 3Q

Seattle Amazon.com announced on Wednesday that its profit grew 48% in its third quarter. Meanwhile, the company reported that its revenue rose almost 31% to $4.26 billion, while sales of items such as books, CDs and DVDs rose 19% to $2.49 billion, and sales of electronics and other merchandise jumped 52% to $1.64 billion.

Amazon said that sales of book titles for the company's wireless e-reader device, Kindle, account for more than 10% of its total book sales.

Revenue from shipping—which includes earnings from Amazon's membership-based two-day shipping program, Amazon Prime, and its third-party shipping program, Fulfillment by Amazon—climbed 12% to $191 million.

The company's net shipping cost also rose, however, to $132 million from $89 million in the year-ago quarter.