Skip to main content

Jeff Bezos To Step Down As Amazon CEO

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

In a very noteworthy move, Amazon's founder and long-time CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that he'll be stepping down from his role as CEO in the third quarter of 2021 and become the Executive Chairman of the e-commerce giant he founded. He'll be replaced by Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Andy Jassy has for long been considered the second in command and heir to the Amazon empire after Bezos and this has just been proven.

As he steps down, Bezos says that he'll remain involved in Amazon initiatives but now spend more time on his other projects such as the aerospace company Blue Origin, newspaper The Washington Post, and philanthropic initiatives.

Bezos will definitely be stepping down in grand style from the mere online bookstore he founded 27 years ago and built into a mammoth e-commerce and technology company. Taken public in 1997, Amazon is currently one of the most valuable publicly-traded companies worldwide, with a market cap of $1.7 trillion.

Obviously, with a net worth reported at $196 billion, money isn't a concern for Bezos as he's stepping down from Amazon to focus on his other projects. He'll now be replaced by Andy Jassy, a long-time Amazon executive who was the founding CEO of Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud hosting division that brought in over $40 billion in revenue last year.

Andy Jassy
Andy Jassy.
Photo credit: jdlasicalicensed under CC BY 2.0

Bezos said in a press statement regarding his stepping down from the role of CEO.

"I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring," he noted.

Photo credit: national museum of American historylicensed under CC BY-NC 2.0


Most Read Posts

Alert: US FDA Permits First E-Cigarettes, Citing Smoker Benefits

The American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized its first set of electronic cigarette products, citing some benefits to their use for adult smokers trying to quit tobacco. The authorization is noteworthy for general e-cigarette products that have been tainted with scandals and controversy for their high use rate among teens.  The FDA permitted three e-cigarette products from Vuse Solo , a brand distributed by British American Tobacco (LON: BATS). Vuse is the No. 2 vaping brand in the US behind Juul, a rival currently in the FDA's crosshairs . Vuse sought permissions for 13 vape products, but 10 were denied, and only 3 were accepted. It shows the FDA's strictness in regulating vape products after locking its eyes on the sector. As it permitted its first vape products, the FDA issued strict guidelines concerning their marketing, including restricting internet, radio, and TV ads to "greatly reduce the potential for youth exposure." For a long time, vape pr

Apple Appeals Ruling Of Legal Brawl With Epic Games

Tech giant Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has filed an appeal against the court judgment of its legal battle with Epic Games , the studio behind hit video game Fortnite . The battle stemmed from Apple's 30% fee on in-app purchases made through its App Store that Epic tried to avoid by enabling sideloading of Fortnite on iOS, but got the game blocked from the App Store in retaliation. The legal brawl between Apple and Epic is one of the landmark events of the tech industry this year. Both companies played it out in court with a three-week trial in May before the first ruling of the case was issued this September. The ruling, by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez of California, was a compromise for both Apple and Epic rather than a solid win or loss for any party. For Apple, it was ordered to allow iOS apps to direct users to payment options other than its own. At the same time, Epic was found to breach its contract with Apple by enabling sideloading and ordered to restitute Apple's 30% cut on Fortnit

LG To Pay GM Up To $1.9B For Supplying Faulty EV Batteries

LG Group , the South Korean electronics and chemicals giant, is reimbursing a significant amount of money for supplying faulty batteries to one of its biggest customers, American automaker General Motors (GM) . It'll reimburse GM  up to $1.9bn  to cover the costs of the automaker's massive recall of its Chevy   Bolt electric cars containing LG batteries. Apparently, LG supplied faulty battery modules to GM for use in its Bolt EVs. These faulty batteries made all Bolts a significant fire risk that caused GM to organize a total recall, costing the American automaker a considerable sum. Because of the fault found with LG's batteries, the Korean company negotiated with GM and agreed to cover the majority of costs of the automaker's total recall. While the final recall costs haven't been set, GM has said  it'll offset $1.9bn of the $2bn in charges associated with the recall in its next quarterly report, implying LG could pay up to that amount. Separately, two LG Cor

AR Startup Magic Leap Is Back, With $500M In Funding

Not too long ago, there was a hot-cake startup that left VCs frothing at their mouths. This startup was building augmented reality (AR) headsets that promised to upend the industry. It was able to raise $3bn on the backs of its hype, but when it delivered its first product, people were greatly unimpressed . Problems came, its CEO stepped down, and the startup faded out of view....It was Magic Leap . However, Magic Leap has jerked back into the public sphere with a new milestone. The startup has announced   $500mn in fresh funding that'll be used to put final touches to its second-generation product. It appears that investors are still hopeful of the company delivering its promise despite its earlier woes. The investors that provided the fresh funding weren't named. Notably, it's not a funding round that warrants a celebration because it heavily diluted the stakes of earlier investors. The new funding valued Magic Leap at $2bn post-money , the company said, which is less

Tether Fined $41M For Lying About Fiat Reserves

Tether Limited , the organization behind the eponymous Tether (USDT) stablecoin, has been fined a substantial sum for lying about the fiat reserves backing its stablecoin. It was fined $41mn by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to the CFTC's press release , Tether lied to customers that it had sufficient dollar reserves to back every issued USDT token whereas it did not for a long period of time. Over a 26-month sample period from 2016 through 2018, the CFTC said Tether only had sufficient dollar reserves for all its tokens 28% of the time, whereas it lied that it was "fully-backed" all the time. Also, the CFTC said Tether failed to disclose to customers that it had unsecured receivables and non-fiat assets in its supposed cash reserves. The organization further lied to customers that it would undergo routine, professional audits of its reserves but has failed to do any, the CFTC said. For its violations, the CFTC fined ordered Tether to pay a

At KKR, Historic Private Equity Barons Step Down

Two of the godfathers of modern-day private equity investing, Henry Kravis and George Roberts  of the famous leveraged buyout firm  KKR (NYSE: KKR), have handed in the reins by stepping down as Co-CEOs from their firm. Replacements have been named for them, effectively . Henry Kravis and George Roberts, together with the late Jerome Kohlberg, pioneered America's industry of "leveraged buyouts (LBO)" where Wall Street firms bought companies using borrowed money, with the companies themselves used as collateral for debt and their future profits used to pay it down.  LBOs built a reputation as a form of "ruthless" capitalism that continues to this day, because of some strong-arming tactics by which Wall Street firms chased after them. This tainted reputation made LBO firms rebrand to what we currently call private equity firms. At KKR, Kravis and Roberts' landmark deal was acquiring RJR Nabisco , a tobacco and food giant, for $25bn , mostly borrowed money,  in

Deal: Mindbody Buys Fitness Startup ClassPass

Mindbody , a leading maker of software for managing gyms and fitness studios, is buying one of the hot startups in its industry. It's buying ClassPass , a popular subscription platform for widespread gym access and online fitness classes. Mindbody will buy Classpass for an undisclosed amount . The company, owned by private equity firm Vista, also announced a strategic $500mn investment along with its ClassPass deal. The acquisition was all with privately held shares, Mindbody said. ClassPass is a celebrated startup in the fitness space. It began as a simple website to book fitness classes with registered studios but morphed into a subscription platform for access to such studios and their fitness classes, with many users paying recurring fees as a steady revenue source.  ClassPass was valued at $1bn from a funding round last year. Given the acquisition's pricing terms weren't disclosed, we can't say for sure if it was higher or lower than the $1bn mark, but for a hint,

Fast Fashion E-Tailer Lulu's Files For IPO

Lulu's , an online retailer of women's apparel, is headed towards the public markets. It's filed an S-1 document for an initial public offering (IPO), showing its intent to list on the Nasdaq exchange. As expected from S-1 filings, Lulu's has provided great insights into its business, with information not publicly disclosed before. Something very noteworthy is that the online shopping boom of this year emanating from the Covid pandemic has largely favored the company. By The Numbers For its most recent fiscal quarter, the three months ended October 3, 2021, Lulu's brought in between $105mn to $106mn in revenue. Its net income for the same period was at the $3mn-$4mn mark. The estimations are because the final, audited results haven't yet been posted. For the fiscal year ended January 3, 2021, Lulu's posted $249mn in revenue and a net loss of $19mn. It shows that the company has swung from losses to profitability this year, with the net profit of between $3m

Personal Finance Startup NerdWallet Files For IPO

NerdWallet , a popular financial information website, has unveiled its S-1 paperwork filed with the US SEC for an initial public offering (IPO). It's the latest fintech startup kickstarting a journey to the public markets at a time when investor sentiment towards public fintech companies is very favorable. NerdWallet is a popular online destination for financial advice and information pertaining primarily to Americans. It makes money from promoting financial products to its users and getting commissions when purchased, a very lucrative business, as the S-1 paperwork indicates. According to the S-1, NerdWallet has a big business that's also profitable . The company posted $245mn in revenue and a small net profit of $6mn in 2020. In 2019, it posted $228mn in revenue and a $24mn net profit.  However, in the first half of 2021, NerdWallet posted a net loss $27mn, though its revenue for the same period grew 32% year-over-year to $182mn. Basically, NerdWallet is a very solid busines

Alert: Coding Platform GitLab Files For US IPO
