ocadoREUTERS/Suzanne PlunkettAn Ocado leaves the Ocado depot in Hatfield, southern England July 21, 2010.
Ocado, the online grocery delivery group that also creates a whole heap of technology that it can sell to other businesses, just posted an incredible set of numbers in its full-year results statement.
But it was noticeably silent on the elephant in the room— a rumoured takeover bid by mammoth tech rival Amazon.
However, Ocado chose not to take the opportunity to make a statement today about its position on a potential takeover. That's not too surprising — companies rarely use earnings calls to announce M&A transactions.
But Ocado posted a pretty killer set of results, with profits soaring 65% year-on-year and gross revenue rocketing 15% to over £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion):
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Other highlights from the financial statement included:
  • New customer acquisitions up over 20%, with active customers up 12.4% to 509,000.
  • Order volumes grew by 16.8% to an average of over 195,000 per week.
  • 73 patent applications (covering 32 innovations) filed by the end of the year — basically tech that the company can hive off and licence or sell for more cash eventually.
  • Continued expansion of the technology team to over 700 technology professionals with plans to increase this to around 1,000 by the end of 2016.
Investors are clearly very happy — shares jumped by over 6% within the first few minutes of trading:
ocadosharesGoogle Finance
However, what was notably absent from the long statement provided by Tim Steiner, Chief Executive Officer of Ocado, was any mention of the takeover rumours. Last month, we heard rumours about Amazon launching a takeover bid for the online grocery retailer.
According to the Daily Mail's Market Report, speculation in The City suggests that Amazon has "advisers beavering away on a potential approach to the British online supermarket."
OcadoOcado
Speculation about Ocado being bought by Amazon has been around for a while now, and several major banks, including Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs have already expressed their belief that Ocado shouldn't try to resist if Amazon was to make it an offer.
The speculation is being driven by the fact that Amazon is looking to expand its Pantry service. Pantry offers a service that is essentially identical to Ocado's — grocery delivery.
But Amazon is a multi-billion dollar global giant, whereas Ocado has yet to expand outside the UK. That's why the investment banks think Ocado should roll over if Amazon comes knocking. Simply put, the theory is that if Amazon wants to take on Ocado, it will win. 
Amazon Pantry currently offers customers a limited-range of dry groceries with around 4,000 items on offer. Each box can hold up to 20 kg. Orders are £2.99 ($4.27) for the first box and 99p ($1.42) for subsequent boxes, and are available to Amazon Prime customers.
Business Insider has reached out to Amazon for comment on any potential takeover approach, and will update this story if and when we hear back.