Billionaire Jeff Bezos will soon no longer be at the helm of Amazon
While the e-commerce giant is more powerful than ever with a net profit doubled in the midst of a global pandemic and a market valuation of more than 1.6 trillion dollars, Jeff Bezos decided to take a step back. He will hand over his role of managing director to Andy Jassy in the third quarter: “Amazon is the company it is thanks to inventions. If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, new things become normal. People are yawning. It is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. Amazon has never been so inventive, so now is a great time for this transition.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announces he will step down as CEO of e-commerce giant this year while remaining chairman of its board #AFP pic.twitter.com/yq2VGd8PdL
– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) February 2, 2021
Although he will always be involved in the major decisions of the American group amazon by remaining chairman of the board, the man who is neck and neck for the title of richest man in the world with Tesla boss Elon Musk now wants to devote his time and energy to philanthropic causes (Day One Fund and Earth Fund), aerospace (Blue Origin) and the press (Washington Post).
Future of Amazon will be battling with Microsoft and Google to win in the cloud
Although unexpected, the replacement of Jeff Bezos by Andy Jassy, head of the Amazon Web Services branch, is not trivial according to analyst Dan Ives of the company Wedbush Securities: “His departure as CEO will send shock waves through the tech world. He’s a titan of the industry. It will leave an indelible mark; he changed the world. As Amazon focuses on the thriving cloud industry and its battles against Microsoft, Andy Jassy’s taking the lead signals the start of a new chapter in the cloud race.”
Future boss Andy Jassy joined Amazon when the company was still in its take-off phase in 1997 as director of marketing. He founded Amazon Web Services there in 2003. This division dedicated to cloud computing, but also to cloud gaming, less known to the general public, has become one of the most profitable of the group which dominates this global market ahead of its competitors Microsoft and Google. .