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Amazon.com Inc's quarterly earnings beat Wall Street's most bullish expectations as the world's largest Internet retailer brought costs under control and saw early success selling more digital products through its new Kindle Fire tablet, sending its shares up almost 15 percent.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeffrey Bezos received $1.68 million in total compensation for 2011, the same as in the prior year.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) (BKS), the largest U.S. bookstore chain, introduced a Nook e-reader with a screen that glows in the dark, challenging Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) (AMZN) at a time when prices for digital books may start falling.

Amazon.com Inc said on Monday it agreed to buy Kiva Systems Inc for $775 million in cash, a deal that will bring more robotic technology to the e-commerce company's giant network of warehouses.

SkyMiles distributor Delta isn't a newcomer to the land of in-flight WiFi freebies. And, while this time it's not setting a time limit on your browsing, you'll have to stay within the Amazon virtual walls to take advantage.

Ten days ago, Diablo 3 Game Director Jay Wilson said a launch-date announcement is "near." Evidently sick of waiting for that day to arrive, Amazon Italy has slapped an April 17 release date on Diablo 3.

The Kindle Fire turned out to be a popular device largely because of its comparatively low price tag. it was the first sub-$200 tablet (by a buck) that didn't feel like a $25 device you'd expect to find in a Fisher Price catalog, and as a result, Amazon closed out the fourth quarter of 2011 with a 14 percent share of the global tablet market,...

With the rumblings from Amazon about the early success of its new Kindle Fire over the holiday season, the company’s disappointing fourth quarter results came as a surprise. More surprising was Amazon’s silence regarding total Kindle Fire sales for the quarter. During the earnings call, Amazon’s executive team deferred questions about the device to the press release, which simply regurgitated sales data from December.

The Kindle Fire is…on fire. Despite some mixed reviews from the pundit class, consumers have flocked to Amazon‘s first entry into the tablet market. Stifel Nicolas analyst Jordan Rohan in a new research lifted his estimate for the company fourth quarter Fire sales to 6 million units from 5 million. He also raised his financial estimates for the company, asserting that the Kindle and the Kindle Fire have effectively become the third major mobile ecosystem after Apple iOS and Google Android.

Barnes & Noble, the giant that put so many independent booksellers out of business, now finds itself locked in the fight of its life, with Amazon.com lurking in the background.