Amazon unveiled its latest earnings report today – and with it came the news that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would be stepping down.
Yes, the big time CEO and founder of Amazon will no longer be in the top seat, planning to move to the role of Executive Chair later this year. Set to move into Chief Executive Officer position is Andy Jassy, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief executive who joined the company in 1997 and has been a driving force in Amazon’s giant position in the cloud business game.
“I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO,” reads the letter Bezos sent to Amazon employees.
“In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence.”
Bezos pointed out that his move from CEO “isn’t about retiring” and will instead give him an opportunity focus on a number of other Amazon initiatives, such as Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, and The Washington Post, as well as “my other passions.”
“As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition,” Bezos said.
“Millions of customers depend on us for our services, and more than a million employees depend on us for their livelihoods. Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else.”
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 – and what a journey it’s had since. Amazon’s infancy was as an online bookstore; what it has become, under Bezos’ leadership, is a behemoth multinational company worth over $US1.6 trillion dollars and covering areas such as streaming, groceries and tech.
As for the new profit numbers, it’s clear that even a pandemic can’t hurt Amazon. In fact, it has obviously helped numbers, since online shopping has become even more of a norm with lockdowns and restrictions.
Amazon has reported record sales and profits numbers, with 2020’s profit basically doubling from its previous year to $US21.3 billion. Sales reached a whopping $US386.1 billion in 2020, a rise of 38 percent from the year before.
The near outlook is looking strong. Amazon is anticipating 2021’s first quarter sales to hit between the $US100 billion to $US106 billion mark, which would be around 33 percent or 40 precent higher than last year’s Q1.
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