Jeff Bezos steps down as Amazon CEO after building an empire

The world's richest man is calling it a day. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon has announced he is stepping down as CEO of the company. [MUSIC] In a statement on the Amazon Website, Bezos announced the news and confirmed that Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon's cloud computing business, Amazon web services would be taking the reins. Jesse will take on the position of CEO in the third quarter of 2021, leaving Bezos to transition to executive chair of the Amazon board. It's the end of an era for Amazon and for one of the titans of the tech world. While Bezos is now the world's richest man, and Amazon is one of the world's biggest businesses. The company started in the early days of the internet, when the idea of selling books online was quite novel. If anybody had predicted what would happen, they would have needed to have been immediately institutionalized. So It is surprising in the last two years we've gone from having a million customers to over 10 million magnets over 12 million customers. And we definitely didn't predict it. Bezos famously founded Amazon in his garage in 1994 using money borrowed from his parents. He said in his early days when he was meeting with investors, the most common question he got was what's the internet, but within a few years, Amazon had grown as shoppers flocked online. [MUSIC] Back in the 90s shopping on Amazon was a low fi experience compared to Today, the warehouses were staffed by young people in headphones searching for books from small stacks on shelves. Compare that to today's high tech operation where automation is key. But with that rapid growth Amazon has also faced its share of controversies. The company has come under fire for mistreating employees with reports of worker injuries. Firing of activist employees and harsh treatment of staff by managers. The pandemic also exacerbated the concerns of workers who demanded that Amazon protect them from the risks of COVID-19. Amazon confirms the first case of COVID-19 in a warehouse worker in March 2020. At the very start of the pandemic, bleeding workers to call to better conditions and more paid time off. But as the world went into lockdown, and shoppers were forced to go online for everything from home office gear to groceries, Amazon has seen huge growth. The company reported net sales of more than $125 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, up 44% from the same period the year before. As Jeff Bezos announced his departure, Amazon stock was close to an all time high and Bezos, his net worth stood at more than $196 billion. [MUSIC] Still, Amazon's sheer size and power has come under increased scrutiny in 2020. Bezos was called to appear before in a stark antitrust hearing in Congress. Lawmakers grilled the billionaire about predatory business practices and whether Amazon copied its competitors to try and squeeze them out of the market. Those battles with regulators aren't over for Amazon now that Bezos is out of the top job. Incoming CEO Andy Jesse will still have to face tough questions about Amazon's market power and the rights of the workers that have built the company into the retail megaforce it is today. [MUSIC]. Still, there's no doubt that Jeff Bezos is one of the founding fathers of Silicon Valley. The company that he started in his garage more than 25 years ago, is now a driving force in e commerce and the names synonymous with online shopping. As Jeff Bezos takes a backseat, it's clear that these tech giant isn't going anywhere.