BREAKING: Jeff Bezos Quits As Amazon CEO, Retailer Posts First $100bn Quarter

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO, taking on the role of Executive Chairman at the e-commerce giant from the third quarter of this year, as Amazon posted its first-ever $100 billion USD quarter.

The online retailer raked in $125.6 billion USD in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 44 per cent from $87.4 billion in Q4 of 2019. Net income for the full year 2020 also surged to $21.3 billion USD, compared to $11.6 billion in 2019.

Bezos, the world’s second richest man – recently surpassed by Tesla’s Elon Musk – announced in an email to staff that he would hand over the CEO role to Andy Jassy, head of Amazon Web Services, but stressed he was not retiring.

Andy Jassy.

“Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else.

“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,” he said.

According to Bloomberg, Bezos is worth around $188 billion USD, just behind Musk at $190 billion.