Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down from his role as chief executive later this year and will become an executive chair, the company said Tuesday. Andy Jassy will become the CEO.
Bezos who had been Amazon’s CEO since its founding in 1995, had issued an email to all the employees, popularly known as Amazonians, announcing that he intended to focus his energy on his new projects, he 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. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives.”
Feeling Nostalgic, he added,” This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, “What’s the internet?” Blessedly, I haven’t had to explain that in a long while.”
Today, Amazon employs 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serves hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and is widely recognized as one of the most successful companies in the world. Hence, making Jeff Bezos one of the richest people globally.
According to Bezos, Invention is the root of the company’s success. Noticeably, Amazon pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more. If you get it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. And that yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive.
Amazon has a great Invention track and as it became large, the company decided to use its scope to lead on important social issues Two high-impact examples: the company’s $15 minimum wage and the Climate Pledge. In both cases, the company staked out leadership positions and then asked others to come along with them. Other large companies are coming their way and Amazonians take pride in it.
Throughout his letter, Bezos does not fail to bring out the importance of teamwork and showed gratitude towards his fellow teammates.
In today’s time, Millions of customers depend on Amazon for its services, and more than a million employees depend for their livelihoods. As Exec Chair Bezos will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy needed to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and his other passions.” I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organizations can have.” he said.
“Amazon couldn’t be better positioned for the future. We are firing on all cylinders, just as the world needs us to. We have things in the pipeline that will continue to astonish. We serve individuals and enterprises, and we’ve pioneered two complete industries and a whole new class of devices. We are leaders in areas as varied as machine learning and logistics, and if an Amazonian’s idea requires yet another new institutional skill, we’re flexible enough and patient enough to learn it.” the company believes.
Amazon’s stock has grown nearly 69% over the past year. Amazon posted quarterly net sales of $125.6 billion, up 44% from the same period in the prior year and well ahead of the $119.7 billion Wall Street analysts had projected.
The quarterly results include sales from Prime Day, which was held October 13-14 after being postponed over the summer because of the pandemic. Sales from Prime Day, as well as continued demand for online shopping as Covid-19 cases surged, contributed to a 40% year-over-year growth in Amazon’s net sales in North America, which totaled more than $75 billion. International sales took a quantum- leap from 57% to nearly $37.5 billion.
Amazon said it delivered more than a billion products to customers worldwide during a “record-breaking holiday season.”
Revenue from Amazon Web Services grew 28% from the prior-year quarter to more than $12.7 billion, which the company attributed to “significant customer momentum,” including new commitments and migrations to the cloud by the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Twitter, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, among others. AWS posted full-year revenue of more than $45 billion and operating income of $13.5 billion.
Net income for 2020 reached $21.3 billion, or $41.83 per diluted share, an increase of nearly 84% from a year earlier.
The strong growth in profit came even as Amazon spent more than $11.5 billion on pandemic-related costs in 2020, Olsavsky said on the call. That includes $2.5 billion in additional Covid-related employee pay and ramping up in-house employee testing. Despite those efforts, Amazon has faced intense inspection over its warehouse safety during the pandemic.
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