"Amazon’s profit and margins have always been slender; it earned only $645 million in 2008, up 36 percent from the year before, compared with Wal-Mart’s $13.4 b

"Amazon’s profit and margins have always been slender; it earned only $645 million in 2008, up 36 percent from the year before, compared with Wal-Mart’s $13.4 billion, up 5 percent. But Wall Street is more enamored by the promise of the online retailer, valuing Amazon at around 60 times earnings and Wal-Mart at 15 times earnings." ... and that's what you get as a tech company where people believe in the promise of innovation.