STEVE INSKEEP, host:]
NPRs business news starts with some high tech profits.
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INSKEEP: Two leading technology companies reported big increases in sales and earnings for the most recent quarter. In fact, online retailer Amazon.com said yesterday it made record profits last quarter - thats the three-month period covering holiday shopping.
ARI SHAPIRO, host:
The company had $9.5 billion in sales. One big seller was the Kindle e-reader device. The companys CEO wouldnt give exact figures but said that millions of people now own Kindles.
INSKEEP: Not far from Amazons headquarters in Seattle, Washington is Microsoft, which is still the worlds biggest software maker. Microsoft said its profits jumped 60 percent in the last quarter of 2009 compared to the previous year. The company cited strong sales of its Windows 7 operating system and sold 60 million licenses in that one quarter. This follows poor reviews and sales of its previous operating system, called Windows Vista.