Jeff Bezos, CEO, and founder of Amazon brings a piece of surprise news. In his letter written to fellow Amazonians, he announced that he will hold the executive chairman position after stepping down from the CEO post later this year. Andy Jassy, head of Amazon Web Services(AWS) will step in as the new CEO of Amazon.
Why Bezos Leaving CEO Post?
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994. Initially, the company used to be an online book store. He transformed it to the biggest online retail platform globally. Recently, Amazon became the 2nd most valuable brand in the world as per the survey done by Brand Finance Consultancy.
Amazon has a presence all over the world. Last year, company crossed $1 trillion valuation first time in January. Under the leadership of Bezos, Amazon stands strong with a current market cap of approximately $1.6 trillion.
Bezos said that he is delighted to inform that this Q3, he will do the transition from CEO to Executive chair of Amazon’s board.
Clearing the doubts about why he is taking this step, he said, “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.”
He said that Jassy and me have worked together almost from the beginning of Amazon. We have done few crazy things in Amazon.
He further cleared the air about retirement speculation by few experts. As of now, he has no plans of retirement.
So, what are the new products he will be working on? Day 1 Fund, his ambitious Bezos Earth Fund Project, the Washington Post, and other passionate projects will take his sole attention.
“As much as I still tap dance into the office, I’m excited about this transition,” Bezos said in his internal announcement. “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.”
Jassy who will most probably take over the Bezos legacy, joined Amazon in 1997. He is leading Amazon cloud services since the beginning. Under Jassy guidance, AWS plays the key role in Amazon’s growth.
Amazon Quarter 4 Earning Report
Amazon made current news public with it’s fourth quarter earning report presentation. In the Q4, Amazon achieved net sale of $125.6 billion. Amazon Q4 net income saw a surge to $7.2 billion or $14.38 a share increment compare to the net income of $3.3 billion or $6.58 a share surge last year in the same quarter.
In above tremendous growth, Jassy’s AWS holds more than 50% share. In a total profit of $21.3 billion in 2020, AWS contributed $13.5 billion. Individually, AWS saw a total of 28% growth in the Q4 of 2020 as well.
Amazon expected that it will do a net sale in the range of $112 billion to $121 billion in Q4. Analysts also predicted a net sale of $119.7 billion in Q4. The company proved everyone wrong with a whopping net sale of 125.6 billion.
Amazon saw a traffic surge in the whole pandemic year of 2020 due to lockdown. Customers bought most of the items online. The demand was so high in covid 19 peak months that the company could not deliver items on time.