After 27 years, famed CEO Jeff Bezos will step down from Amazon.com Inc and turn the helm to his acolyte Andy Jassy, the mega-retailer top cloud executive. Bezos founded Amazon in 1994.
In nearly three decades, the small online bookseller grew into a gigantic corporation with remarkable footprints in various industries, including grocery, cloud computing, streaming, and many more.
Jassy joined Amazon in 1997, right after Harvard business school. He will take the helm in Q3.
In a letter to employees, Jeff Bezos said, “I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO” he continued, “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.”
The timing was unexpected, but Andy Jassy, the new chief executive officer, is not.
As the top executive of Amazon Web services (AWS), Jassy grew the segment from an intrapreneurial endeavor to Amazon’s most profitable business segments.
Amazon Q4 Earnings
Bezos out, but blockbuster earnings continue. The e-commerce giant reported its first $100 billion quarter. Its adjusted earnings of $14.09 per share, well above estimates of $7.23, forecast by Refinitiv. Amazon’s fourth-quarter revenue is $125.56 billion versus the $119.7 forecast by Refinitiv.
The firm’s operating cash flow increased 72% to $66.11 billion for the trailing twelve months, compared with $38.5 billion for the trailing twelve months ended December 31, 2019. Net income is nearly doubled compared with fourth-quarter 2019.
As of this writing, Amazon has a whopping $1.6 trillion market capitalization or market cap. Amazon.com Inc is no longer a small online bookseller. The company employs more than 1.3 million and serves hundreds of millions of customers. It’s a behemoth facing a whole host of problems from antitrust investigations to consumer and regulatory challenges. The next 27 years will undoubtedly be different for the company.
