(NewsNation Now) — Amazon.com Inc on Tuesday beat estimates for holiday-quarter sales and said Jeff Bezos would move to the role of executive chair in the third quarter and be replaced by Amazon Web Services head Andy Jassy as chief executive officer.
In a written statement included in a press release announcing the financial results and CEO transition, Amazon founder Bezos called it the “optimal time for this transition.”
Net sales rose to $125.56 billion in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $87.44 billion, beating estimates of $119.7 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
“Amazon is what it is because of invention. We do crazy things together and then make them normal. We pioneered customer reviews, 1-Click, personalized recommendations, Prime’s insanely-fast shipping, Just Walk Out shopping, the Climate Pledge, Kindle, Alexa, marketplace, infrastructure cloud computing, Career Choice, and much more,” Bezos said. “If you do it right, a few years after a surprising invention, the new thing has become normal. People yawn. That yawn is the greatest compliment an inventor can receive. When you look at our financial results, what you’re actually seeing are the long-run cumulative results of invention. Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition.”
Amazon was forced to move its two-day shopping event Prime Day, typically in July, to early October, contributing to its holiday sales numbers.
This is a developing story; refresh for updates. Reuters contributed to this report.