At Amazon.com, net sales in the third quarter ended September 30 rose 28% to $5.45 billion and net income rose 68% to $199 million.

The company offered an optimistic prediction for the fourth quarter, anticipating net sales between $8.125 billion and $9.125 billion, which would reflect a 21% to 36% increase compared with fourth quarter 2008.

Amazon also lowered the price of its recently debuted international Kindle e-reader by $20 to $259. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, "Kindle has become the number one bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars--not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com."