Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is stepping down.
According to a press release issued by Amazon Tuesday, Bezos will step down as head of the company he founded, though Newsweek is reporting he’s expected to transition to the executive chair position in the company.
Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon Web Services, is expected to replace Bezos as CEO of the company.
Bezos’s announcement came as Amazon announced financials for the fourth quarter of 2020, which saw net sales increase 44 percent to $125.6 billion as opposed to $87.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019. In a Tuesday statement, Bezos said it was the “optimal time” for the leadership change.
“If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal,” Bezos said. “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.”
