Bezos, who founded the company in 1994, will step down after company recorded $100bn in sales for last three months of 2020
Bezos said: ‘Right now, I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.
Jeff Bezos, billionaire founder of Amazon, will step down as chief executive, the company announced on Tuesday.
Bezos, who will remain executive chair, will hand the reins to Andy Jassy, chief executive of Amazon Web Services, the company’s fast-growing cloud computing business.
The surprise news came as Amazon released its latest financial results. Few companies have thrived like Amazon during the coronavirus pandemic, and in the last three months of the year, the company recorded sales of more than $100bn for the first time.
Bezos, 57, founded Amazon in 1994 and built it into one of the largest companies in the world, amassing a fortune of $185bn. Amazon, which started as an online bookseller, is now a dominant force in cloud computing, groceries, electronics and entertainment, and employs more than 1.1 million people.
