Amazon has announced that its founder, Jeff Bezos, will step down as CEO in the third quarter of the ongoing year. The company made such announcement on February 2.
The leading e-commerce company made such a surprising announcement after a blockbuster year, Amazon’s stock soared 67 percent in 2020.
Bezos will transition into the role of executive chair of Amazon’s board and will be replaced as CEO by Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy, the company said in a statement.
In a Tuesday letter to employees, Bezos said he plans to focus on “the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”
The announcement came as Amazon reported record sales in the fourth quarter of USD 125.5 billion. The company pulled in more than USD 100 billion in revenue in a single quarter. It has a profit of USD 7.2 billion, more than double than the previous year.
According to Forbes, Bezos is worth USD 196.4 billion. He owns 11.1 percent stake in Amazon, which as of February 2 is worth more than $1.6 trillion.
Bezos started the company as an online bookseller in his Seattle garage in 1994. Some 30 years later, Amazon’s businesses span cloud storage, video streaming, groceries and more. In February 2020, he pledged USD 10 billion—almost 10 percent of his net worth at the time—to fight climate change through an initiative called the Bezos Earth Fund. Bezos also owns The Washington Post and the space rocket developer Blue Origin.
