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A surge in sales at its web services division helped global online retailer Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) post a surprise quarterly profit, sending shares up over 10%.
The cloud computing business reported sales of $2.09bn in the third quarter, up from $1.17bn for the same quarter last year - a 78% rise.
The division is now almost as profitable as the North America retail unit, where sales rose 28%.
For the group as a whole, net income was $79 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, compared with net loss of $437 million, or $0.95 per diluted share, in third quarter 2014. Analysts had expected Amazon to report a loss.
Sales increased 23% to $25.4 billion in the third quarter, compared with $20.6 billion in third quarter of 2014.
The increase in shares last night added almost US$5bn to the tech giant's founder Jeff Bezos’s fortune with the value of his 82.9 million shares increasing $4.89bn, making him America’s third richest man, according to Bloomberg.
He owns 18% of the company.
Amazon has recently introduced a new US$50 Fire tablet (£50 in the UK) that Bezos was very upbeat about in the results statement.
“At a price of $50 for one or $250 for a six-pack, Fire sets a new bar for what customers should expect from a low-cost tablet," he said.
"This is one more step in our mission to bring customers premium products at non-premium prices. Fire is the #1 best-selling product on Amazon.com since launch, and based on the strength of the customer response, we are building millions more than we’d already planned.”
Amazon shares rose 6.9% to $602.78 at 1:27 p.m. in New York after reaching a histroy high of $619.45.