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Amazon dodges healthcare question, addresses Whole Foods stocking issue

Amazon.com Inc. executives kept mum on the company's plans to enter the healthcare business during a call to discuss the company's fourth-quarter 2017 results Feb. 1.

Asked by an analyst during the call about Amazon's 2018 plans to invest in new business segments including healthcare, CFO and Senior Vice President Brian Olsavsky made no specific comments about the e-commerce giant's plans to join JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in entering the business.

"I would not talk to anything that's not been publicly announced, but on some of the [areas] you mentioned, they are underway and are continuing," he said, adding that the company plans to focus on its entry into the grocery business through Whole Foods Market Inc., AmazonFresh and Prime Now, as well as expanding its business-to-business arm.

Olsavsky did address recent media reports about Whole Foods stores running out of stock on both fresh and packaged grocery items, suggesting that price cuts that Amazon has made since acquiring the grocer in 2017 are to blame.

"We've made no changes post-acquisition that would have impacted anything related to stock, except perhaps the fact that the price decreases have brought up demand and there's an amount of rebalancing related to that," he told analysts.

A report by Business Insider said that a system Whole Foods uses to manage its inventory may be leading to shortages of items at the Austin, Texas-based grocer's stores, in addition to frustrating longtime employees.

During Amazon's 2017 fourth quarter, revenue at Whole Foods totaled $4.5 billion.

For its full 2017 year, sales of Amazon's Alexa voice-activated personal assistant products were above company expectations, CEO, President, Chairman and founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement announcing the company's results Feb. 1.

The Seattle-based company began selling some of its voice-activated devices in Whole Foods stores after it closed its acquisition of the grocer in August 2017.