Jeff Bezos, the world's second-richest man, will step aside as Amazon's chief executive this year and become the executive chairman of the board, he told company employees on Tuesday.
"In the exec chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives," he wrote to staffers, referring to them as "Fellow Amazonians".
"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."
He founded the Seattle-based company in 1994 and led its growth for more than 27 years.
Amazon became one of the most valued companies in the world, with few comparable competitors.
It has grown into a large, wide-ranging e-commerce website and mobile application that offers quick delivery to consumers, with secondary headquarters in Washington, DC.
Its $119 Prime service, with guaranteed two-day delivery, has more than 100 million subscribers. In some US cities, its logistics programmes can deliver orders to Prime members within hours.
Amazon recently bought the US grocery chain Whole Foods to bolster its fresh food services. Other acquisitions include online video gaming platform Twitch, movie review site IMDb, and smart home security company Ring.
It also sells its own tech devices such as the Kindle e-reader, artificial intelligence assistant Echo, and Fire TV and tablet computer products. Beyond that, it offers streaming services such as Prime Video and Amazon Music.
"This journey began some 27 years ago," Mr Bezos wrote to his workers. "Amazon was only an idea, and it had no name.
"Today, we employ 1.3 million talented, dedicated people, serve hundreds of millions of customers and businesses, and are widely recognised as one of the most successful companies in the world."
Its successes have not gone without challenges as the company faces antitrust matters around the world.
It has been criticised for anticompetitive activity, tax avoidance, too much surveillance and clampdowns on employee activism.
Andy Jassy will become chief executive when Mr Bezos moves into the executive chair position.
Mr Jassy is chief executive of Amazon Web Services, a platform offering cloud services, which he founded in 2003 after working for years as an Amazon marketing manager.
Mr Bezos said the transition would take place in the third financial quarter of 2021.
"Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have," he said. "He will be an outstanding leader and he has my full confidence."
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The projects Mr Bezos will focus on include space endeavours in Blue Origin and his ownership of The Washington Post.
Blue Origin, the space exploration company Mr Bezos founded in 2000, is participating in the race to the Moon with its high-tech lunar landers. He promised in 2020 to send the first woman to the Moon.
Competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX and several other space companies, Blue Origin is also working on the development of space tourism and reusable launch rockets. The New Shepard and New Glenn rockets are both expected to launch this year.
The Washington Post is a $250 million purchase Mr Bezos made in 2013 although he has had limited interaction with the publication since then.
"I’ve never had more energy and this isn’t about retiring. I’m super passionate about the impact I think these organisations can have," Mr Bezos wrote.
His post-Amazon efforts will include philanthropic work with the Day 1 Fund and Bezos Earth Fund, both programmes that contribute to organisations addressing homelessness, education in underserved communities, environmental protection and fighting climate change.
On Tuesday, Amazon released its profits for the fourth quarter of 2020.
The company reported its first $100 billion-plus financial quarter, owing to what it called a "record-breaking holiday season" even amid economic stresses caused by to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It blew past that milestone with revenue around $125.56bn.
An earlier version of the article stated secondary headquarters were located in New York City. Plans to build an Amazon HQ2 base there was scrapped after local backlash.
RESULTS
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
Persuasion
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Company profile
Company name: Dharma
Date started: 2018
Founders: Charaf El Mansouri, Nisma Benani, Leah Howe
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: TravelTech
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investors: Convivialite Ventures, BY Partners, Shorooq Partners, L& Ventures, Flat6Labs
Bio:
Favourite Quote: Prophet Mohammad's quotes There is reward for kindness to every living thing and A good man treats women with honour
Favourite Hobby: Serving poor people
Favourite Book: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Favourite food: Fish and vegetables
Favourite place to visit: London
