Jeff Bezos speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on Sept. 19, 2019. Amazon said Tuesday that Bezos is stepping down as CEO later in the year, a role he’s had since he founded the company nearly 30 years ago. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Jeff Bezos speaks during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. on Sept. 19, 2019. Amazon said Tuesday that Bezos is stepping down as CEO later in the year, a role he’s had since he founded the company nearly 30 years ago. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Jeff Bezos will step down as Amazon CEO

Bezos, the company’s founder, will become exectuive chairman. Andy Jassy will replace him as CEO.

By Joseph Pisani / Associated Press

NEW YORK — Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon as an online bookstore and built it into a shopping and entertainment behemoth, will step down later this year as CEO, a role he’s had for nearly 30 years, to become executive chairman, the company anounced Tuesday.

Bezos, 57, will be replaced in the summer by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud-computing business.

In a blog post to employees, Bezos said he planned to focus on new products and early initiatives being developed at Amazon. He said he would have more time for side projects, including his space exploration company Blue Origin, his philanthropic initiatives and overseeing The Washington Post, which he owns.

Bezos, who is the company’s biggest shareholder, will still have broad influence over Amazon.

“Jeff is really not going anywhere,” Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said in a call with reporters. “It’s more of a restructuring of who’s doing what.”

Launched in 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast, free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything else. Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a common sight in living rooms.

As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents’ home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University, and then worked at several Wall Street companies.

He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business — though at first he wasn’t sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his now ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle — a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Oregon.

While Scott drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the Bezos’ Seattle garage on July 16, 1995.

Amazon has gone far beyond selling paperbacks. It now produces movies, makes sofas, owns a grocery chain and even has plans to send satellites into space to beam internet service to earth. The company is one of the most valuable in the world, worth nearly $1.7 trillion.

During the pandemic, Amazon was one of the few retailers to benefit as shoppers stayed clear of malls and shopped from their phones. On the same day Amazon announced Bezos would step down, the company reported making a record profit in the last three months of 2020, and its quarterly revenue shot past $100 billion for the first time.

Bezos’ riches have also swelled: His stake in Amazon is currently worth about $180 billion. For years he stayed behind the scenes, running the company. More recently, he sometimes stepped into the spotlight, showing up at movie premieres and Hollywood parties.

In 2019, he announced he was divorcing Scott in a tweet, just before the National Enquirer published a cover story saying Bezos had an affair with a former TV host. Scott received a stake in Amazon after the divorce worth nearly $40 billion at the time. She has pledged to give away half her fortune to charities.

As Amazon has grown, so has scrutiny. Amazon and other tech giants have enjoyed light-touch regulation and star status in Washington for decades, but calls for greater regulation are growing. A report by the House Judiciary Committee in October called for possibly breaking up Amazon and others, making it harder for them to acquire companies and imposing new rules to safeguard competition.

Bezos is one of the last founders of a big tech company to still be CEO. The founders of Google, Oracle and Microsoft have all stepped down from the top job of the companies they created. Facebook is still led by co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Jassy, Bezos’ replacement, is a longtime Amazon executive, having worked at the company since 1997. The cloud-computing business he runs powers video-streaming site Netflix and many other companies, and it has become Amazon’s most profitable business.

“He’s deeply steeped in technology and a very seasoned executive in his own right,” Gartner analyst Ed Anderson said.

But he will also face many challenges.

“Amazon’s size makes some industries uncomfortable, some governments uncomfortable, and Andy Jassy will have to deal with the consequences,” Anderson said. “That will be some of the new era of his leadership.”

Associated Press writers Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, Mae Anderson in New York and Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Northwest

Alaska Airlines aircraft sit in the airline's hangar at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, in SeaTac, Wash. Boeing has acknowledged in a letter to Congress that it cannot find records for work done on a door panel that blew out on an Alaska Airlines flight over Oregon two months ago. Ziad Ojakli, Boeing executive vice president and chief government lobbyist, wrote to Sen. Maria Cantwell on Friday, March 8 saying, “We have looked extensively and have not found any such documentation.” (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
FBI tells passengers on 737 flight they might be crime victims

Passengers received letters this week from a victim specialist from the federal agency’s Seattle office.

Skylar Meade (left) and Nicholas Umphenour.
Idaho prison gang member and accomplice caught after ambush

Pair may have killed 2 while on the run, police say. Three police officers were hospitalized with gunshot wounds after the attack at a Boise hospital.

Barbara Peraza-Garcia holds her 2-year-old daughter, Frailys, while her partner Franklin Peraza sits on their bed in their 'micro apartment' in Seattle on Monday, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes)
Micro-apartments are back after nearly a century, as need for affordable housing soars

Boarding houses that rented single rooms to low-income, blue-collar or temporary workers were prevalent across the U.S. in the early 1900s.

Teen blamed for crash that kills woman, 3 children in Renton

Four people were hospitalized, including three with life-threatening injuries. The teenage driver said to be at fault is under guard at a hospital.

Whidbey cop accused of rape quits job after internal inquiry

The report was unsparing in its allegations against John Nieder, who is set to go to trial May 6 in Skagit County Superior Court on two counts of rape in the second degree.

LA man was child rape suspect who faked his death

Coroner’s probe reveals the Los Angeles maintenance man was a Bremerton rape suspect believed to have jumped off the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Logo for news use, for stories regarding Washington state government — Olympia, the Legislature and state agencies. No caption necessary. 20220331
Edmonds rep’s bill would try to stop police from lying in interrogations

Rep. Strom Peterson’s measure aims to make statements inadmissible if police use deceptive tactics to get those statements.

The exterior doors of Boeing's 737 assembly factory are shown closed Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in Renton, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Boeing mechanics in Renton mis-installed piece that blew off plane, whistleblower says

A source says the fuselage panel that blew off an Alaska Airlines jet earlier this month was reinstalled improperly at the Boeing facility in Renton.

Yvonne Gallardo-Van Ornam, left, and Clyde Shaver
Arlington council member to run for state rep against Shavers

Yvonne Gallardo-Van Ornam called it a “little embarrassing” to have Oak Harbor Rep. Clyde Shavers “representing veterans.”

Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, at right, looks over at Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, ranking minority member of Senate Transportation Committee, at left, after participating in a panel during a legislative session preview in the Cherberg Building at the Capitol, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024 in Olympia, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
Edmonds senator wants LGBTQ+ history taught in public schools

Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, is the bill’s prime sponsor and one of the Legislature’s LGBTQ+ members.

Logo for news use featuring Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington. 220118
Island County pays $2.75M to former Navy chief shot after standoff

A lawsuit alleged the Island County Sheriff’s Office was responsible for “state-created danger.”

West Beach Road was closed and residents were evacuated during the wind storm Tuesday. (John Fisken / Whidbey News Times)
Whidbey homes damaged, road closed, ferry rocked in wild wind storm

A wind storm toppled a tree onto a house, canceled ferry trips and prompted evacuations Tuesday.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.