Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon (AMZN), has not been a favorite of the press or Wall St. Barron’s often complains that Amazon’s financial statement are not transparent. The company is often taken to task for paying for free shipping which hurts margins.

Of course, the Amazon is in too many businesses. It sells books, DVDs, consumer electronics and a Fibber McGee’s closet of other stuff. The company also has its own internet video download service called UnBox.

Amazon even sells enterprise customers access to its e-commerce and storage platforms. The company’s pitch for its business-to-business operation is simple: "Amazon has spent 11 years and over $2 billion building the infrastructure, technical knowledge,"

The company has been portrayed as unfocused, undisciplined, and poorly managed. The primary blame falls on Bezos, the only CEO Amazon has ever had.

Jeff Bezos need not wear the Fool’s hat any longer.

In the latest quarter, revenue rose 32% to $3.02 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal "Amazon’s spending on technology and content in the quarter rose 27% from a year earlier to $186 million." But this rate of spending is significantly slower than it has been in the recent past.

Amazon also raised its forecasts for revenue and earnings in the next quarter and for the full year.

As it turns out, the key to Amazon’s growth is its diversification away from selling only a few categories of items. According to MarketWatch: "The results got a boost by stronger sales of electronics, which jumped 48% to around $947 million."

Bezos has had a rough ride. Six years ago, its shares were below $6 and recovered to $60 in 2003. But, concerns about the company’s lack of focus and free spending on marketing and technology pushed the shares back below $26 last August. After hours today, the shares were up over 12% to $50.30. Investors have doubled their money in nine months.

As recently as last November, a well-know Wall St. analyst slammed Amazon in BusinessWeek: "I have yet to see how these investments are producing any profit," gripes Piper Jaffray & Co’s Safa Rashtchy. "They’re probably more of a distraction than anything else."

Now Bezos can thumb his nose at all of them.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

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