TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Winter 1, Eskom 0

      22 June 2022

      What it will take to bring the Guptas to justice

      22 June 2022

      Inflation in South Africa spikes higher

      22 June 2022

      Eskom announces massive escalation in load shedding

      22 June 2022
    • World

      Tether to launch a stablecoin tied to the British pound

      22 June 2022

      Tech giants form metaverse standards body, without Apple

      22 June 2022

      There are still unresolved matters in Twitter deal, Musk says

      21 June 2022

      5G subscriptions to top one billion in 2022: Ericsson

      21 June 2022

      Crypto lenders face a DeFi drubbing

      21 June 2022
    • In-depth

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022

      Sheryl Sandberg’s ad empire leaves a complicated legacy

      2 June 2022

      Tulipmania meets the real economy at WhatsApp speed

      30 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»E-commerce»Jeff Bezos to relinquish reins at Amazon.com

    Jeff Bezos to relinquish reins at Amazon.com

    E-commerce By Agency Staff3 February 2021
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Jeff Bezos. Joshua Roberts/Reuters

    Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO and become executive chairman, naming the head of its lucrative cloud computing division as successor in a sign of the company’s transformation from Web retailer to Internet conglomerate.

    This northern hemisphere summer, Bezos, 57, will hand the keys of the world’s largest online retailer to Andy Jassy, head of its cloud division, Amazon Web Services. The announcement on Tuesday settles a long-running question about who would replace the world’s second richest person at the company’s helm.

    Bezos is ending his role as CEO on a high note: The business he began as an internet bookseller 27 years ago is now one of the world’s most valuable companies and posted three consecutive record profits after losses in decades prior. On Tuesday, Amazon reported quarterly sales above US$100-billion for the first time.

    Jassy’s background in steering AWS shows just how top of mind those services are to Amazon’s business strategy

    Jassy, 53, joined Amazon in 1997 after Harvard Business School, founding AWS and growing it to a cloud platform used by millions of customers, the company’s website said. He had been a clear contender for the top job since Amazon created two CEO roles reporting to Bezos years ago, the other held by recently retired consumer CEO Jeff Wilke.

    Tom Johnson, chief transformation officer at global marketing firm Mindshare, said Jassy’s promotion underscored the centrality of the Web hosting business to Amazon’s strategy.

    Highly technical

    “Jassy’s background in steering AWS shows just how top of mind those services are to Amazon’s business strategy. It’ll be interesting to see how that affects their strategy and balancing that priority with a growing ad business and the commerce behemoth,” he said.

    Jassy is known for understanding highly technical details and has regularly taken jabs at legacy player Oracle and cloud rival Microsoft, which AWS continues to exceed in sales. Bezos has made fewer public remarks about competitors.

    Under Jassy’s leadership, Amazon’s cloud business has signed major customers including Verizon, McDonald’s and Honeywell. Silicon Valley start-ups have long relied on AWS, and the division’s annual revenue grew 37% in 2019 and 30% in 2020, helping cement its position as the market leader.

    Andy Jassy. Mike Blake/Reuters

    One contract AWS failed to win was the $10-billion “Jedi” project from the Pentagon, which was awarded to Microsoft.

    Jassy has aimed to bestow a rock-star aura to keynotes at AWS’s annual Las Vegas conference, speaking before over 60 000 attendees in 2019 after upbeat music preceded his talk.

    Bezos, who already has focused on other personal enterprises in years past, said in a note to employees posted on Amazon’s website, “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.” Blue Origin is Bezos’ space company.

    He added: “I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring.”

    Jassy’s AWS, traditionally a bright spot, fell slightly short of expectations in the fourth quarter

    Chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky said on a call with analysts that Bezos would work on “large one-way door issues”, such as acquisitions and other strategies where there is a high cost to reversing course.

    Amazon’s net sales rose to $125.6-billion as consumers turned to the world’s largest online retailer for their holiday shopping, beating analyst estimates of $119.7-billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

    Jassy’s AWS, traditionally a bright spot, fell slightly short of expectations in the fourth quarter. While the cloud computing division recently announced deals with ViacomCBS, BMW Group and others, it posted revenue of $12.7-billion, short of the $12.8-billion analysts had estimated.

    Amazon said it was not naming an AWS replacement for Jassy at this time.

    Meanwhile, Amazon’s e-commerce business has never been as big. Since the start of the US coronavirus outbreak, consumers have turned to Amazon for delivery of home staples and medical supplies. While brick-and-mortar shops closed their doors, Amazon recruited over 400 000 more workers to keep up with demand.  — Reported by Jeffrey Dastin and Akanksha Rana, with additional reporting by Subrat Patnaik and Noor Zainab Hussain, (c) 2021 Reuters

    Amazon Amazon Web Services Andy Jassy AWS Microsoft Oracle top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous Article5 reasons why OLED laptop technology is a game changer
    Next Article Tencent fires 100 employees in corruption crackdown

    Related Posts

    The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

    22 June 2022

    Winter 1, Eskom 0

    22 June 2022

    What it will take to bring the Guptas to justice

    22 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    More than card machines – iKhokha diversifies to reach more SMEs

    22 June 2022

    What does it cost to be a student in 2022?

    22 June 2022

    Rugged PCs bring AI to the edge in industrial settings

    21 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.