Seattle, WA — Founder and CEO of Amazon ($AMZN) Jeff Bezos announced that he will be stepping down from his role as CEO of Amazon. The unexpected move was announced during Amazon’s most recent earnings report. Amazon reported its first $100 billion quarter, a historic accomplishment for the e-commerce giant.
What was unexpected, however, were the circumstances under which Jeff Bezos is stepping down. A source on deep-background was able to confirm that Mr. Bezos’ departure was actually caused less by a desire to hand the reigns over and more by a recent shortfall in his personal finances.
Apparently, Mr. Bezos was one of the millions of retail investors who piled into GameStop ($GME) right at the historic $468 high on January 28th. “I put everything I had into that investment — even liquidated my Amazon shares. Really thought we were going to the moon”, said Mr. Bezos in a statement he released on Tuesday. The same source was able to confirm that Mr. Bezos uses the handle u/booksellerjeff on the r/wallstreetbets subreddit and was an extremely active member of the community.
We were able to reach Andy Jassy, the incoming CEO, for comment:
“It’s really sad to see Jeff step down... and right in his Prime, too. We didn’t know he was playing so fast and loose with his money and we worry about what that says about his judgment as CEO; he had to step down. It wasn't a decision we took lightly, especially after all he's done for Amazon as a company over the past several decades. Fortunately, we were able to get him a job in one our many warehouses where we are confident we can keep an eye on him”