Michael D’Angelo, Staff

Pictured above is former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos delivering a speech discussing Amazon’s future to investors in 2019.

The infamous Jeff Bezos is stepping down from his position as CEO at e-commerce giant Amazon Inc. and will move into the role of executive chair starting in the third quarter. He is the richest man in the world with a net worth over $180 billion. He is a majority shareholder of Amazon and also owns the Washington Post and space company Blue Origin. Bezos will be replaced by Andy Jassy. 

Bezos is a Princeton alumni and began his career on Wall Street. He quit his job checking out balance sheets and investments in 1994 and opened Amazon.com in 1995. The company originally sold books on their website in the U.S. and other countries. Amazon went public in 1997 with an IPO price of $18 per share. The conglomerate has grown from a simple website selling books to a massive corporation that manages a video production segment, owns the Kindle reader, manages Amazon web services and owns Whole Foods. Amazon has plenty of room for potential growth in the future, and the stock price closed on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2021 for $3,380 a share. The future is bright for Amazon and many consumers, from young college students to retirees, who love to purchase items on the site. 

Bezos is reportedly stepping down to focus on other business prospects and devote more time to Blue Origin, the Washington Post, Day 1 Fund and his Earth Fund. If you are wondering if you can buy stock in Blue Origin to chase earnings like Amazon, you are out of luck. The company was founded in 2000, is privately held and the business intends to transform space travel. Many rumors have circulated online that Bezos will compete with Elon Musk for space travel objectives. The Washington Post is a major news organization and Bezos bought the company in 2013 for $250 million. The Day 1 fund is Bezos philanthropic approach to life and the fund intends to create preschools for underdeveloped communities. Bezos’s earth fund is dedicated to providing grants to people who fight and provide solutions for climate change. As Bezos will leave Amazon to focus on other prospects, he will pass the reins onto Andy Jassy. 

Andy Jassy has been with Amazon for years and he assisted in developing Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2003. He became CEO of AWS in 2016. Jassy, who is Harvard educated, came onto the scene with Amazon in 1997. AWS represents 10 percent of Amazon’s total revenue and they mainly compete with both Google and Microsoft. For the fourth quarter of 2020, AWS reported a 28 percent growth in sales but fell short of many expectations. Jassy would like to propel Amazon and grow the company. 

The future is looking exceptionally strong for Amazon; the company has the opportunity to continue as a highly profitable business for shareholders. In addition, time will only be able to tell the legacy of Jeff Bezos, as he strives to push human innovation further by pushing the limit of space travel with Blue Origin.  

dangelom2@lasalle.edu