Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has stepped away as the company’s CEO Monday.

Amazon announced in February that he would be stepping down. In May, Bezos announced that his final day would be July 5.

“We chose that date because it’s sentimental for me, the day Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago,” Bezos said, according to CNBC.

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy will step in to run things beginning in the third quarter of 2021. Jassy joined Amazon in May 1997 and founded Amazon Web Services in 2003.

“I’m excited to announce that this third quarter I’ll transition to executive chair of the Amazon board and Andy Jassy will become CEO,” Bezos said in a letter to employees in February. “In the exec chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence.”

According to a news release that reported the company’s fourth-quarter earnings, Amazon’s net sales increased 44% to $125.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared with $87.4 billion during the fourth quarter of 2019. Amazon also had a net income of $7.2 billion.

Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this report.

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