Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO and become executive chairman, naming the head of its lucrative cloud computing division as successor in a sign of the company’s transformation from web retailer to internet conglomerate.

Bezos will hand over the keys of the world’s largest online retailer to Andy Jassy, head of its cloud division Amazon Web Services known as AWS in this summer. Amazon is now one of the world’s most valuable companies and posted three consecutive record profits after losses in decades prior. Jassy, joined Amazon in 1997 after Harvard Business School, founding AWS and growing it to a cloud platform used by millions of customers, the company’s website said.

Jassy is known for understanding highly technical details and has regularly taken jabs at legacy player Oracle Corp and cloud rival Microsoft Corp, which AWS continues to exceed in sales. Bezos has made fewer public remarks about competitors.

Under Jassy’s leadership, Amazon’s cloud business has signed major customers including Verizon, McDonald’s and Honeywell. Silicon Valley startups have long relied on AWS, and the division’s annual revenue grew 37% in 2019 and 30% in 2020, helping cement its position as the market leader.

Jassy has aimed to bestow a rock-star aura to keynotes at AWS’s annual Las Vegas conference, speaking before over 60,000 attendees in 2019 after upbeat music preceded his talk.

Bezos, who already has focused on other personal enterprises in years past, said in a note to employees posted on Amazon’s website, “As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.” Blue Origin is Bezos’ space company.

He added, “I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring.”

Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts that Bezos would work on “large one-way door issues,” such as acquisitions and other strategies where there is a high cost to reversing course.

Source- Reuters

Country- U.S