Amazon Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) billionaire founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos has said he will step down from the role in the third quarter of this year.
However, Bezos, the world’s richest man with a net worth of over US$196bn, said he will not be leaving the company and will instead move into the role of executive chairman where he intends to focus on “new products and early initiatives” including the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin and The Washington Post.
“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”, Bezos said in a letter to employees on Tuesday.
Bezos will be replaced as CEO by Andy Jassy, who has been with the firm since 1997 and is the current head of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) could computing business, which some have speculated will mean computing and tech will form the core of the company's business strategy going forward.
The change at the top of Amazon, which has been headed by Bezos since it was founded as an online bookshop in 1994, also comes amid an increase in the current CEO’s public profile as well as increased scrutiny of Amazon’s business practices and its dominance of the market, an issue that has attracted even more attention after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused a boom in sales and profits at the firm due to higher levels of online shopping during lockdown.
Record earnings amid lockdown shopping boom
This boom in Amazon’s fortunes was on full display in its results for its fourth quarter released after the close on Tuesday.
For the three months to December 31, the company reported net income of US$7.2bn, surging from US$3.3bn in the prior year, while net sales jumped 44% to US$125.6bn and its operating cash flow soared 72% to US$66.1bn.
The company also delivered record net incomes of US$21.3bn, up from US$11.6bn in 2019, while sales climbed 38% to US$386.1bn.
Looking ahead, Amazon said it expects net sales for the first quarter of 2021 to continue in the triple-digits of between US$100-106bn, growth of 33-40% on the prior year while operating income is expected to be between US$3-6.5bn accounting for US$2bn in costs related to COVID-19.
Shares in the company were 0.3% lower at US$3,369 in pre-market trading in New York on Wednesday.