Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stepping down as CEO

Amazon Inc. on Tuesday said founder Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO and become executive chairman, as the company reported its third consecutive record profit and quarterly sales above US$100 billion for the first time.

The transition, slated for the third quarter, will make current cloud computing chief Andy Jassy Amazon’s next chief executive officer.

Net sales rose to US$125.56 billion as consumers turned to the world’s largest online retailer for holiday shopping, beating analyst estimates of US$119.7 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Bezos, who started the company 27 years ago as an Internet bookseller, said in a note to employees posted on Amazon’s website, “As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”

He added, “I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring.”

Amazon shares were up less than one per cent in afterhours trading. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and has a MBA from Harvard Business School, according to the company’s website. He founded Amazon Web Services (AWS) and grew it to a cloud platform used by millions, the company said.

Tom Johnson, chief transformation officer at Mindshare Worldwide, said Jassy’s promotion underscored the importance of web services to Amazon’s future.

“Jassy’s background in steering AWS shows just how top of mind those services are to Amazon’s business strategy. It’ll be interesting to see how that affects their strategy and balancing that priority with a growing ad business and the commerce behemoth,” he said.

Jassy’s AWS, traditionally a bright spot, fell slightly short of expectations.