Afternoon Roundup: Today's Top Stories

AtThe Motley Fool, we know our readers like to be informed. We have scouted out today's most relevant news items and brought them to you all on one page. We hope you find this midday edition informative and useful.

In an attempt to battle Apple (NAS: AAPL) in the tablet business, Amazon (NAS: AMZN) decided to sell its new Kindle Fire for less than half the price of the iPad. But this is stretching the company's profits since the company could lose $200 million for the fourth quarter as costs mount. With such a low price on the Kindle Fire, the company could lose $10 per device, according to estimates. Amazon had already disappointed investors last quarter by missing forecasts by 42%.

The company's stock price was down 10% in intraday trading, after having already lost 4% before the closing bell yesterday. But Amazon's losses could be seen as preparation for a much brighter future, as the company builds more infrastructure to support its Web services. Read more atBloomberg.

(NAS: RIMM) announced it would delay the release of its tablet's new operating system until February. The BlackBerry Playbook OS 2.0, as it was dubbed, was expected to debut sometime this month. Some analysts thought it would be presented at the company's conference in San Francisco last week. RIM released its tablet in April to discouraging reviews and low sales performance.

The industry was closely following the new upgrade in hopes that it would allow customers to access their email without having a BlackBerry phone in hand. The company said in a blog post it would rather wait to make sure it was delivering the best product than launching it at the expected date. Company executives also said BBM, the instant messaging feature already seen in BlackBerrys, would not be included in the tablet until a later upgraded version. Read more atThe Wall Street Journal.

Carmaker Ford (NYS: F) reported a 2% decrease in profits for the third quarter, totaling $1.65 billion. The company has been able to turn a profit for 10 consecutive quarters. Most of the gains came from its business in North America but losses increased by 56% in Europe. The carmaker had just closed a labor deal that would increase labor costs by less than 1%. It had also announced it was close to reinstating dividends to its investors despite not having investment-grade ratings. The company said it was on track to surpass last year's $8.3 billion operating profit. Read more atThe New York Times.

Groupon is asking for an initial public offering five times its predicted sales. The price was set based on the prediction that Groupon will make $2.1 billion in sales next year. At the proposed $17 per share, the company would be valued at $10.8 billion. The IPO offer will also value the company at 11 times higher than the projected EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) for 2013. The online coupon company hopes to raise $540 million by selling 30 million shares of common class A stock. Groupon and its underwriters are meeting with buyers and plan to complete the offering by Nov. 3. Read more atBloomberg.

So there you have it, the top financial stories for this afternoon. If you are interested in getting all the news and commentary on these stocks, sign up to My Watchlisthere-- it's free!

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At the time thisarticle was published Michelle Zayed doesn't own any stocks mentioned.The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Microsoft, and Ford Motor.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended buying shares of Apple, Microsoft, Ford Motor, and Amazon.com.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended creating a bull call spread position in Microsoft.Motley Fool newsletter serviceshave recommended creating a bull call spread position in Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

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