Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is to step down as chief executive of the e-commerce company that he began nearly 30 years ago in his garage. A move he said would give him “time and energy” to work on his other projects, he will become executive chairman. Mr. Bezos, who is the richest man in the world, will be succeeded by Andy Jassy, who is currently heading the cloud computing sector at Amazon. The transition will take effect, the firm added, in the second half of 2021.
On Tuesday, Bezos said in a letter to the staff of Amazon that, it is a profound duty to be Amazon’s CEO, and it’s consuming. When you have such a duty, it’s impossible to pay attention to something else. I will be active with major Amazon projects as Exec Chairman, but I will also have the time and resources I need to work on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Planet Project, Blue Origin, the Washington Post, and my other interests.
He added I’ve never had more energy, and it’s not a matter of retirement. I am super excited about the changes I feel these organizations will have.
What is the importance of Jeff Bezos to Amazon? How has the company grown under his leadership?
Since the inception as an online bookshop in 1994, Mr. Bezos, 57, has led Amazon. The business currently hires 1.3 million people worldwide and has a hand in everything from mail distribution and online streaming to cloud computing and ads. According to Forbes’ list of billionaires, he’s accrued a fortune of $196.2bn, rendering him the richest man in the world – while Elon Musk bumped him off the top spot multiple times this year before slipping back again.
Last year, when the pandemic sparked a surge in online purchasing, Amazon saw its already exponential rise like a skyrocket. In 2020, the company posted revenue of $386bn (£283bn), up 38 per cent from 2019. Income almost doubled, rising to $21.3 billion. Mr. Bezos said in unveiling the preparations that he will intend to work on new goods and programs. He said that what you’re currently seeing are the long-run average effects of the invention when you look at our financial results. I see Amazon at its most innovative ever right now, making it a perfect moment for this transition. The shake-up comes when an increasingly public image has been established by Mr. Bezos. He suffered a public split, became a focus for advocates for labour and injustice, and invested his money into other firms, such as the Blue Origin space exploration company and the Washington Post newspaper.
Bezos says he “Is not going anywhere’
Amazon is now under growing scrutiny from authorities, who have challenged its monopoly authority. And other software giants, such as Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent companies of Google and YouTube, are constantly questioning its supremacy in cloud computing. The decision of Mr. Bezos to take over the day-to-day management of the company comes as a surprise. Yet buyers, with no improvement in the company’s share price in after-hours trading, remained unfazed.
Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call with investors to review the company’s financial performance that Jeff is not going, he is getting a new job… In Amazon’s success story, the board is super involved and significant. Since 1997, Mr. Jassy, a Harvard graduate, has been with Amazon and helped to grow Amazon Online Services, which has long been used as the company’s profit driver. Cloud processing and storage for governments and corporations, including McDonald’s and Netflix, are offered by the division. Mr. Jeff Bezos said that, inside the company, Andy is well recognized and has been at Amazon for nearly as long as I have. He’ll be an excellent chief, and he’s got my total confidence.
An analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, Sophie Lund-Yates, said it was “no accident” that Amazon tapped the head of the cloud market to run the group. It’s a real treat here. But you have to note that Jeff Bezos is worth almost $200bn on his own. And imagine what you can do when you’re that rich. Outside of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has some pretty lofty aspirations. His company, Blue Origin, wants “build a road to space” $10bn has already been poured into the Earth Fund to help tackle the consequences of climate change. Yeah, that he holds the Washington Post as well.
How’s Amazon going to cope?
Ok, most notably, he doesn’t go. He will also exercise tremendous control over the organization as the executive chair and founder. Stepping back would, though, eventually mean less control. Amazon Web Services, the thriving cloud market division of Amazon, has been managed by his successor – Andy Jassy. His rise to the top shows how important this organization has been to Amazon.
