Jeff Bezos Steps Down as CEO of Amazon, Naming Andy Gacy as His Successor

Amazon announced Tuesday that Jeff Bezos, the CEO, will step down later this year, turning the helm over to Andy Gacy, the company’s cloud chief executive.

Bezos will move to take over the position of CEO of the Amazon Board of Directors.

Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and has since transformed its one-time online bookstore into a massive retailer with global reach in a plethora of different categories from gadgets to grocery to live streaming.

Under Bezos’s leadership, Amazon surpassed the $1 trillion market cap in January last year – now worth more than $1.6 trillion.

The company kept succession plans quiet, although onlookers speculated that Gacy would be his successor. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and has led Amazon’s cloud web services team since its inception.

The news came along with the earnings report in which Amazon posted its first quarter of $100 billion.