The daily business briefing: April 29, 2016

Amazon soars, Comcast agrees to buy DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, and more

Amazon cupcakes.
(Image credit: Rachel Murray/Getty Images)

1. Amazon smashes expectations and its stock takes off

Amazon shares soared in pre-market trading Friday after the online retail powerhouse reported quarterly profits that far exceeded expectations. The stock gained 12 percent after hours Thursday. Earnings per diluted share reached $1.07, nearly double the 59 cents per share forecast by analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Amazon's sales increased by 28 percent to $29.1 billion, beating forecasts of $28 billion thanks partly to its fast-growing cloud services business and brisk North American sales.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.