We are pleased to report the 33rd consecutive quarter of revenue and earnings growth. We are especially pleased with the balanced growth rate across almost all countries in both Europe and the Americas.
We've already exceeded in 2006 our revenue for 2005 in terms of signed deals.
We've achieved a good profit outcome despite softness in some of our businesses and weak revenue growth. Our profit reflects the fact that we continue to tune our business models and cost structures.
We are lowering our future revenue estimates modestly, which causes a slight decline in our earnings-per-share assumptions. Our fourth-quarter earnings estimate now is $1.45, down a penny, and our 2001 estimate is $4.90, down from $4.95.
We believe that over time this could turn into a significant business for Amazon, significant revenue stream for publishers and authors and a helpful customer service for readers,
We believe that our third quarter revenue growth places Red Hat among the fastest growing mid-cap technology companies in the world.
We believe that our new customer additions and revenue from repeat customers attest to our ability to acquire and retain customers by continually investing in innovative technology and new products and services that broaden our product offering.
The positive news is we're making progress on the cost front, led by painful concessions by our employees and suppliers, ... The tougher news is while the revenue environment has improved, it's still depressed by historical standards.
We appreciate that the DPUC had responded to some of the concerns we had expressed about the draft decision. This additional revenue will defray some but not all of our increasing operational costs.
We are seeing a real recovery in tech revenue and earnings, and we look at 2004 being a reasonably good year for the economy. The question is: Does the outlook really support the market run and the valuations we put on those companies?