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You can read the full email from Jassy to AWS staff below:
A little over three years ago when Jeff announced my new role, one of my first jobs was to identify who’d take over and lead AWS, It was the business. We had strong leaders in AWS, several of whom could lead the overall business in the long-term, but who’d benefit from a few more years gaining experience and learning under a more seasoned CEO.
Adam Selipsky was one of the first VPs we hired in AWS back in 2005, and spent 11 years excellently leading AWS Sales, Marketing, and Support, before leaving to become the CEO of Tableau. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Adam, and we met several times to discuss the possibility of coming back to lead AWS, In those conversations, we agreed that if he accepted the role, he’d likely do it for a few years, and that one of the things he’d focus on during that time was helping prepare the next generation of leadership.
We were fortunate that Adam agreed to step in and lead AWS, and has deftly led the business, while also developing his leadership team. Adam is now going to move onto his next challenge (after taking a well-deserved respite), and Matt Garman will become CEO of AWS, effective June 3rd.
I’d like to thank Adam for everything he’s done to lead AWS over the past three years. He took over in the middle of the pandemic, which presented a wide array of leadership and business challenges. Under his direction, the team made the right long-term decision to help customers become more efficient in their spend, even if it meant less short-term revenue for AWS. Throughout, the team continued to invent and release new services at a rapid clip, including several impactful Generative Al services, such as Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Q. Adam leaves AWS in a strong position, having reached a $100 billion annual revenue run rate this past quarter, with YoY revenue accelerating again. And perhaps most importantly, AWS continues to lead on operational performance, security, reliability, and the overall breadth and depth of services. I’m deeply appreciative of Adam’s leadership during this time, and for the entire team’s dedication to deliver for customers and the business.
Andy Jassy
Amazon’s cloud computing division is laying off hundreds of employees in its physical stores technology and sales and marketing units, the company confirmed Wednesday.
“We’ve identified a few targeted areas of the organization we need to streamline in order to continue focusing our efforts on the key strategic areas that we believe will deliver maximum impact,” an Amazon Web Services spokesperson said in a statement. “We didn’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting the employees throughout their transition to new roles in and outside of Amazon.”
Amazon’s lucrative AWS unit has seen its sales growth decelerate in recent quarters as companies trimmed their cloud spend amid rising interest rates. Amazon executives expressed some optimism in February when they said the market is starting to show signs of a reacceleration.
The cuts to AWS’ store technology team come after Amazon said it would remove cashierless checkout systems in its U.S. Fresh stores. The AWS unit includes teams overseeing the cashierless tech, called Just Walk Out, as well as its Dash smart carts and Amazon One palm-based payment technology. The store technology team was moved out of Amazon’s retail group and folded into its cloud computing division in 2022.
The AWS spokesperson said the company decided to make cuts to the store technology division “as a result of a broader strategic shift in the use of some applications in Amazon’s owned as well as in third-party stores.”
Amazon continues to trim its headcount after more than a year of mass layoffs. Beginning at the end of 2022 and continuing through 2023, Amazon initiated the largest layoffs in its history, cutting more than 27,000 jobs across almost every area of the company. So far this year, Amazon has laid off employees in its Twitch, Audible, Buy with Prime, and Prime Video and MGM Studios units.
Employees in the U.S. will continue to receive their pay and benefits for at least 60 days, and they will be eligible for a severance package.
Amazon demonstrated is running very low in deficit. It takes billions to fire 27,000 thousand employees and fire the CEO of the main brand. They fool Wall Street is just 38 cents, tell us another story.
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