Common shares outstanding plus shares underlying stock-based awards totaled 488 million on June 30, 2015, compared with 480 million one year ago. This is the second quarter since Amazon began disclosing revenue and operating profit for AWS and for the second time, the growth for this division surprised Wall Street analysts. Net income was $92 million in the second quarter, or $0.19 per diluted share, compared with net loss of $126 million, or $0.27 per diluted share, in second quarter 2014.  Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos became the fifth richest person in the world on Thursday, after gaining more than $7 billion in a a single hour as Amazon stock spiked during after-hours trading. “We unveiled Amazon Business, opened Amazon Mexico, launched Prime free same-day, rolled out our ninth Prime Now city, broke our Black Friday record with the first-ever Prime Day, received 11 Emmy nominations for Transparent, debuted six new kids’ pilots, brought Echo to general availability, introduced the Alexa Skills Kit and Alexa Voice Service, opened FBA Small and Light, continued to double down on our fastest-growing geography – India, launched 350 significant AWS [Amazon Web Services] features and services so far this year (ahead of last year’s pace), introduced AWS Educate, and entered into agreements for new solar and wind farms – enough to exceed our 2016 goal of 40% renewable energy.” 
 
 Leading authors call for government probe of Amazon's 'damaging' power Read more 
 
 Much of the growth reported this quarter can be attributed to the company’s Amazon Web Service, AWS, which is the company’s collection of remote cloud computing services. A conference call will be webcast live today at 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET, and will be available for at least three months at www.amazon.com/ir. AWS Customers 
 
 References to AWS customers mean unique AWS customer accounts, which are unique e-mail addresses that are eligible to use AWS services.
– Jeff Bezos is having a pretty good month, even by the standards of stratospherically wealthy tech tycoons. Last night, just days after the Amazon.com founder celebrated the company's 20th anniversary, he made $7 billion in under 45 minutes as the company's share price soared in after-hours trading, reports the Guardian. The 18% share price gain came after the company surprised analysts by reporting a large profit and a 26% rise in North American sales year-on-year, CNBC reports. Bezos is now the fifth-richest person in the world with an estimated fortune of $50.3 billion, according to Forbes. Amazon has now passed Walmart to become the highest-valued retail company in the world, and in a press release, Bezos lists many recent successes, including Prime Day, the establishment of Amazon Business and Amazon Mexico, and new agreements for solar and wind farms. But one glaring failure for Amazon appears to be its relationship with authors, the Guardian notes. Earlier this month, a group of authors including Ursula Le Guin and Malcolm Gladwell joined the American Booksellers Association in calling for the Department of Justice to investigate the firm's "abuse of its dominance in the world of books." (Last fall, analysts wondered how the company could rein in Bezos.)