Jeff Bezos announced Monday that he is stepping down as CEO of Amazon, the company he founded as an online bookseller in 1994 and grew into a $1.7 trillion online retail giant.

Bezos plans to become executive chairman and hand his position over to Andy Jassy, currently chief executive of Amazon’s cloud computing division. The change will take effect in July. Bezos has in many ways personified Amazon; as his company grew and upended retail worldwide, he became the richest person in the world (Elon Musk surpassed his $188 billion personal wealth just last month). Amazon’s growth has continued during the pandemic as demand for e-commerce increases, but the company has also received greater scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators over antitrust issues in recent months. Amazon warehouse workers have also expressed alarm over safety conditions during the pandemic, and workers at an Alabama fulfillment center are attempting to unionize. 

Today on AirTalk, we’re learning more about what the shift in Amazon’s leadership will mean for the company. Questions? Give us a call at 866-893-5722.

Guests:

Matt Day, reporter for Bloomberg Technology based in Seattle who covers Amazon; he tweets @mattmday

Sucharita Kodali, e-commerce analyst at Forrester Research, a technology research and advisory firm based in Cambridge, MA; she tweets @smulpuru