Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) has come to dominate the world of online commerce. More than 26 years after it was first founded, the company has since become one of the largest businesses in the world. However, investors were surprised when Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, announced during the company’s recent quarterly results that he would be stepping down from his position later this year.
Bezos said that he would be transitioning from the chief executive to just being the chairman of the company. In his stead, Andy Jassy, the current head of Amazon Web Services, would be stepping up to take over as CEO. In terms of executives, Jassy has been one of the longest-serving employees in Amazon, having worked for the company for over 24 years.
“Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else,” said Jeff Bezos in an official statement to Amazon employees. “As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”
Besides this, Amazon announced its fourth-quarter results on Tuesday, which managed to edge out over the already high expectations set by Wall Street analysts. Fourth-quarter revenue was up 44% in comparison to last year, rising to around $125.6 billion. Not only is this the first time Amazon has reported quarterly revenues over $100 billion, but it also managed to beat even the high-end estimates of $120 billion that the most optimistic analysts had set for the company.
At the same time, however, Amazon is facing a number of regulatory issues going forward. This includes anti-trust investigations from various countries on whether the company has participated in anti-competitive practices. Among other things, Jeff Bezos was also called to testify before Congress back last year on the subject of big tech monopolies. Taking all this into account, there’s a significant chance that Amazon could have its separate businesses broken up.
Shares aren’t really moving that much in pre-market trading right now following the news, up just around 0.3% right now. While Amazon is continuing to report stellar growth figures, considering how large the company is right now, the question remains as to just how much longer the company will continue to grow at this incredible pace.
Amazon Company Profile
Amazon is among the world’s highest-grossing online retailers, with $233 billion in net sales and roughly $311 billion in estimated physical/digital gross merchandise volume in 2018. Online product and digital media sales accounted for 53% of net revenue in 2018, followed by commissions, related fulfillment and shipping fees, and other third-party seller services (18%), Amazon Web Services’ cloud computing, storage, database, and other offerings (11%), Prime membership fees and other subscription-based services (6%), product sales at Whole Foods and other physical store retail formats (7%), and advertising services and cobranded credit cards (4%). International segments constituted 32% of Amazon’s non-AWS sales in 2018, led by Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan. – Warrior Trading News
