Amazon’s post-Bezos experiment hasn’t gone exactly as planned

Published

3 years ago

March 21, 2023

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos speaks during an Action on Forests and Land Use event on day three of COP26 at SECC on November 2, 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom.

Paul Ellis | Getty Images

When Amazon announced just over two years ago that founder and then-CEO Jeff Bezos would turn the helm over to former cloud boss Andy Jassy, few investors or analysts reacted with much concern.

Jassy, a close confidant of Bezos, was known as an Amazon lifer and a celebrated figure inside the company and across the industry because he launched Amazon Web Services, which became one of the most valuable businesses in the world. Analysts at Wedbush practically yawned at the move, saying the transition would likely be “seamless and largely inconsequential.”

Unfortunately for Jassy, his short tenure at the helm has been all too eventful.

Since Jassy officially succeeded Bezos in July 2021, Amazon has experienced its most turbulent period since the dot-com crash. Last year marked its slowest year for revenue growth as a public company, and Jassy has been forced to guide Amazon through a series of cost-cutting measures that nobody predicted would be necessary when business was booming through the Covid pandemic.

Amazon shares have plunged by 44% since July 5, 2021, Jassy’s first day as CEO. And on Monday, Jassy said the company is cutting another 9,000 jobs, adding to the 18,000 layoffs that were announced in January. While the cuts represent a small percentage of Amazon’s corporate workforce, they still represent a shocking turn for a company that was in non-stop growth phase for the better part of 25 years.

“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” Jassy wrote in an email to employees.

Much of Jassy’s unfortunate circumstance can be attributed to bad timing — historically high inflation pushed the Federal Reserve to raise rates, crippling growth across the U.S. tech sector. But whether it’s bad luck, his own missteps or some combination of the two, Jassy is an unenviable position as only the second CEO in Amazon’s history.

Bezos, his predecessor, transformed Amazon from a bookseller into a retail, cloud computing and advertising giant that became known for an inventive, startup-like atmosphere. On Bezos’ watch, the company turned out groundbreaking inventions like the Kindle e-reader and the Echo smart speaker, and invested in new verticals like original content, health care and brick-and-mortar grocery stores.

So far, the Jassy era has been all about belt tightening and retrenchment from some of Amazon’s more experimental pursuits.

For the past year, Jassy has been trimming expenses across the company. Many unproven bets, like Amazon’s Scout delivery robot, a virtual tours service, Care telehealth program, and a video-calling device for kids were axed. He made the decision to shutter all of its 4-star, Pop Up and Books stores and, earlier this year, announced Amazon would close some Fresh supermarkets and Go cashierless convenience marts. Drone delivery, one of Bezos’ pet projects, is struggling mightily to get off the ground as it, too, faces cost cuts.

The pandemic-driven e-commerce boom pushed Amazon to double its physical footprint between 2020 and 2022. The stock soared, along with head count. But as the economy reopened and online sales stalled, Amazon found itself saddled with more facilities than it could efficiently put to use and eventually moved to close, cancel or delay the opening of many new warehouses.

Amazon to expand Amazon Care nationally for its workers, other employers

Earlier this month, Amazon paused construction of the second phase of its sprawling new campus in Arlington, Virginia, dubbed HQ2. Other construction projects in Nashville, Tennessee, and Bellevue, Washington, have also been put on hold, in part because much of Amazon’s corporate workforce has been working remotely since the pandemic.

Jassy is under immense pressure to prove he can get expenses under control. But in order to revive the enthusiasm that Bezos drove into Amazon’s culture, he’s eventually got to find new engines for growth.

In its fourth-quarter earnings report, Amazon barely eked out a profit, and the company issued disappointing guidance for the first quarter, with revenue growth expected to be stuck in the mid-single digits.

It’s not exactly what Bezos had in mind, when he told employees in early 2021 about the coming CEO transition.

“Amazon couldn’t be better positioned for the future,” Bezos wrote at the time in a letter to staffers. “We are firing on all cylinders, just as the world needs us to. We have things in the pipeline that will continue to astonish.”

WATCH: Amazon cutting 9,000 more jobs

Amazon cuts 9,000 more jobs in addition to 18,000 announced in January

Technology

We’re increasing our Cisco Systems price target after an AI-fueled beat and raise

Published

7 hours ago

November 13, 2025

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We're increasing our Cisco Systems price target after an AI-fueled beat and raise

Technology

CNBC Daily Open: An AI and ‘everything else’ market in play in the U.S.

Published

7 hours ago

November 13, 2025

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CNBC Daily Open: An AI and 'everything else' market in play in the U.S.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Nov. 12, 2025 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The divergence between the performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite on Wednesday stateside reinforces the suggestion that there are two markets operating in the U.S.: one of an artificial intelligence and another of “everything else.”

Not only did the Dow rise, it also secured its second consecutive record high and closed above the 48,000 level for the first time.

The index, which comprises 30 blue-chip companies, is typically seen as a marker of the “old economy.” That is to say, it is mostly made up of large, well-established companies driving the U.S. economy, such as banks, healthcare and industrials, before Silicon Valley became a mini sun powering everything.

And it was those stocks — Goldman Sachs, Eli Lilly and Caterpillar — that lifted the Dow on Wednesday.

To be sure, new and flashy names, such as Nvidia and Salesforce, constitute the Dow too. But as the index is price-weighted, meaning that companies with higher share prices influence the Dow more, tech companies don’t exert as much gravity on it.

That’s in contrast to the Nasdaq, which is weighted by companies’ market capitalization, and dominated mainly by technology firms. The tech-heavy index fell as shares like Oracle and Palantir slipped — even Advanced Micro Devices’ 9% pop on its growth prospects couldn’t rescue the Nasdaq from the red.

It’s not necessarily a warning sign about overexuberance in AI.

“There’s nothing wrong, in our view, of kind of trimming back, taking some gains and re-diversifying across other spots in the equity markets,” said Josh Chastant, portfolio manager of public investments at GuideStone Fund.

But what investors would really like is if fork in the road merges into one. That tends to be the safer path to take.

What you need to know today

The Dow Jones Industrial Average notches record. The 30-stock index climbed 0.68% Wednesday stateside to close above 48,000 for the first time. The S&P 500 was mostly flat and the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.26%. The pan-European Stoxx 600 gained 0.71%.

Anthropic to spend $50 billion on U.S. AI infrastructure. Custom data centers will be first built in Texas and New York and go live in 2026, with more locations to follow. The facilities will be developed with Fluidstack, an AI cloud platform.

U.S. October jobs and inflation data might not be released. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that part of the fallout of the government closure could be lasting damage to the government’s data collection ability. But analysts think otherwise.

U.S. House of Representatives heading toward a vote. The House on Wednesday night stateside cleared a procedural hurdle required before the vote could begin on a bill that would end the government shutdown. Voting is expected to happen as of publication time.

[PRO] This U.S. mining stock is a top play: CIO. U.K. fund Blue Whale Capital’s Stephen Yiu said macroeconomic concerns, such as the U.S. fiscal deficit and the weakness of the dollar, could support the stock.

And finally…

People walk by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on June 18, 2024 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Why private equity is stuck with ‘zombie companies’ it can’t sell

Private equity firms are facing a new reality: a growing crop of companies that can neither thrive nor die, lingering in portfolios like the undead.

These so-called “zombie companies” refer to businesses that aren’t growing, barely generate enough cash to service debt and are unable to attract buyers even at a discount. They are usually trapped on a fund’s balance sheet beyond its expected holding period.

— Lee Ying Shan

Technology

Firefly Aerospace shares jump 15% on strong revenues, boosted guidance

Published

9 hours ago

November 12, 2025

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Firefly Aerospace shares jump 15% on strong revenues, boosted guidance

Jason Kim, chief executive officer of Firefly Aerospace, center, during the company’s initial public offering at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025.

Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Firefly Aerospace‘s stock surged 15% on Wednesday after the space technology company issued better-than-expected third-quarter results and lifted its guidance.

Revenues in the third quarter jumped nearly 38% to $30.8 million from $22.4 million in the year-ago period and nearly doubled from the previous quarter.

Firefly’s net loss totaled $140.4 million, or $1.50 per share. The company said net loss included costs tied to its IPO, foreign exchange and executive severance

The company also lifted its outlook for the year, saying it now expects revenues to range between $150 million and $158 million. That’s up from previous guidance in the range of $133 million and $145 million.

This is Firefly’s second quarterly report as a public company. Last quarter, shares slumped after it posted a bigger loss and lower revenues than analysts were expecting.

The Cedar Park, Texas, company went public on the Nasdaq in August during a period of heightened enthusiasm toward space technology. The U.S. government and NASA have leaned on more contracts with companies like Firefly and Elon Musk‘s SpaceX to support moon missions.

But shares of Firefly have lost 70% of their value since their opening day close, and the company’s market capitalization has plummeted from about $8.5 billion to about $2.7 billion on Wednesday.

In September, Firefly shares sank after a rocket exploded during a ground test at the company’s Texas facility, days after receiving clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration over a separate incident. Firefly has since put “corrective measures” in place, the company said on Wednesday. Shares dropped 35% in September and are down 24% this month.

Firefly in July won a nearly $177 million contract with NASA for an upcoming moon mission, and in October, it announced its acquisition of defense tech firm SciTec to boost its national security portfolio.