Seattle, WA — Jeff Bezos is stepping down as the CEO of Amazon, according to a statement from the massive online shopping company.
Bezos is transitioning to a position as executive chairman of the board.
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services since its creation in 2006, will replace Bezos as Amazon’s CEO. It is not clear if Jassy’s position as the CEO of AWS will change.
The change comes shortly after a controversial move by Amazon Web Services to shut down Twitter competitor Parler.
Jassy is taking the reigns of the company as it faces antitrust issues with accusations that Amazon holds monopoly power from both Europe and the U.S. Apple, Facebook, and Google all face similar complaints.
The House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust investigated the four tech giants for over a year. It concluded the companies held monopoly power.
In his letter to employees, Bezos discussed using Amazon’s influence to sway policy.
“As Amazon became large, we decided to use our scale and scope to lead on important social issues. Two high-impact examples: our $15 minimum wage and the Climate Pledge. In both cases, we staked out leadership positions and then asked others to come along with us. In both cases, it’s working. Other large companies are coming our way. I hope you’re proud of that as well.”
Jeff Bezos’ letter to Amazon employees
Bezos says that while he will still be involved at Amazon, he will not be free to focus on other projects. That list includes:
- The Bezos Earth Fund
- Blue Origin (spaceship company)
- The Washington Post
- Amazon Day 1 Fund
Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000. The company aims to preserve Earth (and make a profit) by designing the technology for humans to live and work in space.
You can be sure Jeff Bezos is not going away anytime soon, despite stepping down to a lesser role in Amazon.
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