From Amazon's early beginnings as an internet bookstore to its current state of "The Everything Store" - Jeff Bezos has been at the forefront.
In 1994, Jeff Bezos began his tenure as CEO for the company we now use for quite literally - everything.
Amazon has a current market cap of $1.7 trillion, meaning the total value of all of their shares of stock is $1.7 TRILLION - let that sink in. As any borderline monopoly would, Amazon’s current stock price trades for around $3,330/share.
As CEO of Amazon, Bezos owns a little over 53 million of those shares and that's not including the $3 billion worth of shares that he just recently cashed out.
So now that we all understand just how insanely wealthy Jeff Bezos is due to his role as CEO of Amazon - let's talk about why he would want to leave.
Bezos isn't leaving his role as CEO to go kick up his feet on a remote island somewhere - although I'm sure we all would if the roles were reversed. He's actually leaving to go and gain even more control over the monopolistic behemoth of a company as he transitions to "Executive Chair of the Board of Amazon."
His role at Amazon essentially only changes in day-to-day functions, because he will still be the largest shareholder (and therefore holds majority ownership) and has a strong rapport with the people transitioning into the roles he used to own that will allow him to make all big decisions as he used to.
In addition, Bezos doesn't want to be the public face of Amazon anymore. Due to the increased pressure from government regulators for their monopolistic tendencies and privacy of data threats, Bezos was regularly having to answer difficult questions about the state of his company and their increasing privacy standards.
Oh, and Amazon isn't known for being a lovely place to work. Labor unions are constantly pressuring Bezos to increase the employee standards at Amazon. So, by leaving his role as CEO, he also leaves the spotlight for the company and the responsibilities of being the "bad guy" to the new guy who will fill his shoes.
So who is this new CEO?
Enter, Andy Jassy - former head of Amazon Web Services and Harvard Business alum. Jassy has been with Amazon since 1997 and has developed a longstanding relationship with Bezos that will provide a perfect scenario for him to attach the puppet strings to the back of his suit coat as Bezos sits back in the executive suite slowly maneuvering Jassy around as he pleases.
Bezos is not going anywhere - he's actually becoming more powerful because he's got the new transitioning CEO in his back pocket, is majority shareholder of the company, and now holds an executive chair of the board position.
To compare this to politics, Bezos essentially just took over the judicial, the legislative, and the executive branch. If Jeff Bezos wasn't already on pace to take over the world, then he surely is now.
Vin
Sources and Images: Wired, WashingtonPost, GeekWire
Well written Vinny. This is both interesting and informative, not to mention spot on. This flows well, and of hal F off the business writers were as talented as you are, then I would be subscribing to numerous business magazines instead of just skimming their headlines on websites. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Interesting article.. Thanks for the insight!