Amazon Announces New Boss

Amazon had a blowout quarter, with EPS higher by 118% over last year. But all that was overshadowed by the (somewhat) surprising announcement that Jeff Besoz was stepping down as CEO (he will remain Chairman) and handing over the reigns to AWS boss, Andy Jassy. Besoz will spend more of his time focusing on his space company Blue Origin (and beating Musk's Space X in every way).

AWS is Amazon's cash cow, responsible for 40% of its profits. And Jassy pioneered that business, begining in 2003. He's been with Amazon since 1997, almost as long as the company itself. You can check out his bio here.

Here's Jassy's memo to Amazon employees:

Hey Team. I'm assuming most of you saw the news from Jeffb today that he'll be transitioning to Executive Chairman in Q3, and that I will move into the role of CEO of Amazon at that time.

I'm excited for Jeff and look forward to watching his next chapter unfold. Seems a pretty good bet that it'll be something special. It's hard to overstate how much I've learned from Jeff over the past 24 years  - from how much I obsess over customers, to the importance of inventing and looking around corners, to the criticality of hiring and developing great people, to the value of high standards and consistently speedy, outstanding delivery. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead Amazon, and excited about what the future holds for the Company.

I'm also excited about what the future holds for AWS. Like the rest of Amazon, AWS is in a very good spot. At a $51B revenue run rate, growing 28% YoY [year on year], and with the meat of enterprise and public sector adoption starting to happen now, we have a chance to build a very unusual, long-term business. And more importantly, we continue to help millions of new and existing customers not only transform their own companies, but also entire industries. One of the amazing things about AWS and Amazon is that we're still such a small overall share of the market segments in which we address. It's still very early days.

Nothing is changing in the short term as it relates to AWS. You'll be stuck with me until Q3; and even after that I will always be passionate and connected to AWS. We have plenty of time to determine in the coming weeks who will lead the AWS business when I assume the new role. We will share those details in the future. We have unusual leadership depth in AWS that, along with all of you, are the heart of the business - and that doesn't change. In the meantime, stay giddied up - we have so many customers needing our help to transform and accomplish what they're trying to do. We won't be bored any time soon :-).

Andy