Jeff Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO
The founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, will step down from his role as CEO (Chief Executive Officer). Mr Bezos, 57, announced he will finish as CEO later this year. Instead of being CEO, he will take on the new role of Amazon's executive chair. He will pass on the position of CEO to Andy Jassy. Mr Jassy is currently head of Amazon Web Services - a cloud computing business. Mr Bezos has been in charge of Amazon since founding the company in his garage in 1995. The company started as an online bookseller but turned into a global online marketplace. It branched out into streaming video, music, and audiobooks. It also produces consumer electronics, including Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and Echo devices.
Amazon is one of the world's biggest Internet companies and one of the most valuable. It is worth around $1.7 trillion. The company has made Mr Bezos one of the world's richest people. Bezos commented on his success. He said: "This journey began some 27 years ago. Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name. 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." Mr Bezos also owns the Washington Post newspaper and the space travel company Blue Origin, which aims to go to Mars.