New York, Feb 3, 2021: World’s leading eCommerce platform Amazon.com Founder & CEO Jeff Bezos will step down later this year as CEO to become executive chairman.
Acted as a CEO for 30 years Bezos will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud-computing business.
Under the leadership of Andy Jassy Amaozn cloud-computing business powers video-streaming site Netflix and many other companies, and it has become Amazon’s most profitable business.
In a blog post to employees, 57-year-old Bezos said, he planned to focus on side projects, including his space exploration company Blue Origin, his philanthropic initiatives, and overseeing The Washington Post, which he owns.
“Jeff is really not going anywhere,” Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call with reporters. “It’s more of a restructuring of who’s doing what.”
Bezos, who is the company’s biggest shareholder, will still have broad influence over Amazon.
Launched on July 16, 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of eCommerce having millions of shoppers all over the world. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a common sight in living rooms.
The company is valued worth nearly $1.7 trillion in which Bezos stake is worth about $180 billion.
The company reported making a record profit in the last three months of 2020, and its quarterly revenue shot past $100 billion for the first time.
Amazon has gone far beyond selling paperbacks. It now produces movies, makes sofas, owns a grocery chain, and even has plans to send satellites into space to beam internet service to the earth.
In 2019, he announced he was divorcing Scott in a tweet, just before the National Enquirer published a cover story saying Bezos had an affair with a former TV host. Scott received a stake in Amazon after the divorce worth nearly $40 billion at the time. She has pledged to give away half her fortune to charities.