Amazon hit by surprise loss last quarter, despite 22 percent rise in sales

The retail game is all about scraping a living out of tiny margins, and nowhere is that more evident than in Amazon's latest financial report. The company managed to grow revenue by 22 percent year-over-year between April and June, to $15.7 billion, and yet it confounded analysts' predictions by making a loss of $7 million, versus a $7 million profit in the same quarter last year. Then again, this knock has been attributed to the fact that Amazon is pushing to expand beyond the retail game, by i...