

The news came as part of Amazon’s fourth-quarter earnings report.

“The question I was asked most frequently at that time was, ‘What’s the internet?’ … Today, we employ 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serve hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and are widely recognized as one of the most successful companies in the world.” Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name,” Bezos wrote letter to employees Tuesday. Jassy has worked for Amazon since 1997 and currently serves as CEO of the company’s cloud business, Amazon Web Services, its biggest profit driver. He oversaw its growth from an online bookseller into a $1.7 trillion global retail and logistics behemoth, which has also made Bezos into one of the world’s richest people. He will be replaced by Andy Jassy.īezos has been Amazon’s CEO since its founding in 1995. The same office, but with a different individual seated alongside Bezos, was featured in a "60 Minutes Australia" interview that aired in 2000, as per the program's official YouTube account.Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will step down from his role as chief executive later this year and transition to the role of executive chair, the company said Tuesday. His introduction to Bezos also poked fun at the billionaire's unusual laugh: "You generally hear him before you see him It's the ear-piercing laugh of billionaire Jeff Bezos." "More like a college dorm than a corporate headquarters," Simon said. Amazon was a relatively new phenomenon, but Simon was incredulous about the state of the office. "And you don't need clean carpets," Simon retorts.Īt that point in 1999, Simon described Bezos as "a giant" and a "titan of our time." Bezos was a billionaire who still worked out of dingy Seattle offices. In response, Bezos says, "It's a symbol of spending money on the things that matter to customers, and not spending money on the things that don't." Earlier in the interview Simon says of Bezos' desk, which happens to be an old door, "Come on! You can afford a better desk than that."
