Moments after Tuesday’s closing bell, as Amazon was riding high on a sea of profits, spurred in part by the need for home delivery during a pandemic lockdown, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos announced he would be stepping down as CEO. His timing may not be random.
Larry Glazer of Mayflower Advisors said, “I mean everybody’s entitled to step aside, but going forward, the shifting political sands could put a target on these companies from a tax and regulatory perspective, and he knows it. And maybe it’s going to be someone else’s challenge to take that on. And that’s why you’re seeing these executive C suite changes at this massive company.”
There are storm clouds on the horizon for Amazon, as Walmart is ramping up its home delivery service, Walmart +. European Union regulators filed anti-trust charges against the delivery giant for unfair competition, while U.S. regulators fined Amazon $62 million for withholding tips to its drivers. Congress may take further action.
In a statement, Bezos said in his new hands-off job, as executive chairman, he will “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.”
Bezos has been a visionary success, and his wealth confirms it. He again tops the Forbes list of the world’s richest men at $196.2 billion. An architectural rendering of the company’s futuristic new building in Arlington, Virginia, suggests more to come.
But success has not come without personal cost. He was the subject of a divorce-related tabloid scandal. More recently, Amazon was accused of a double standard — supporting fraud-prone mail-in voting in the presidential election while denying mail-in voting for a unionization vote of its own workers.
That, amid new accusations of fomenting censorship: Amazon WorkSpaces pulled its servers from Parler, silencing the conservative Twitter. And, in what some call a violation of journalistic ethics, his Washington Post erased unflattering Vice President Kamala Harris quotes from its archives, then restored them when it was caught. The Washington Post also recently called for an advertising boycott of conservative competitor, Fox News.
While Bezos explores entering into new realms of the United States and world economies, its bread and butter remains delivering packages. Amazon has 150 million members — almost half the U.S. population.
