Jeff Bezos Out As Amazon CEO, Sales up 44 Percent in 4Q 2020

The world’s largest online retailer Amazon.com, is making leadership changes while posting strong sales for the fourth quarter of 2020. Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon will leave his post during the third quarter of 2021, transitioning to executive chair. Andy Jassy, currently CEO of Amazon Web Services, will replace Bezos as CEO of Amazon.com.

“Amazon is what it is because of invention. We do crazy things together and then make them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO said in a statement released by the company. “If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”

The pandemic has been favorable for Amazon.com sales since more people are working from home and pausing normal activities. Net sales for Amazon increased 44 percent to $125.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, up from $87.4 billion in the same quarter of 2019. Excluding the $1.7 billion favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 42 percent compared with fourth quarter of 2019.

Operating revenue rose to $6.9 billion during the fourth quarter of 2020, a leap from $3.9 billion in the same period in 2019. Amazon credited strong holiday sales among its small business sellers for a portion of its success.

For more breaking technology news, culture and politics follow and subscribe to our social media channels @nycwired