Deep bench calms investors despite Amazon troubles
SEATTLE: It’s been a rough few weeks for the world’s wealthiest man. Amazon.com Inc. chief executive officer (CEO) Jeff Bezos announced his divorce. He became engulfed in a tabloid scandal complete with blackmail allegations. And, on Thursday, his company abruptly scrapped plans to invest $2.5 billion and hire 25,000 people for a giant new office in New York City.
Yet investors don’t seem to be spooked just yet. Strip out Bezos and Amazon from the headlines and the stories are more mundane. A 25-year marriage ends. A publicly subsidized office park deal falls apart. A rich guy accuses someone of blackmailing him with embarrassing photos.
Amazon still has more than 100 million Prime members, whose subscription fees make them more loyal to the company because they can capitalize on shipping discounts. It has fast-growing cloud computing and advertising businesses that have made the company increasingly profitable. And even if Bezos gets distracted, the e-commerce giant has a deep bench of executives who oversee day-to-day operations in the shadow of their boss. Most notable are cloud chief Andy Jassy and retail chief Jeff Wilke, who were promoted to division CEO roles almost three years ago.
“They’ve got a deep management team,” said RJ Hottovy, an analyst at Morningstar . “Jeff Wilke and Andy Jassy keep the business running pretty smoothly at this point, even though they might not get the credit.”
Bezos remains the key visionary and the public face of Amazon. The company’s growth has forced the CEO to delegate more day-to-day operations.