It's the end of an era at Amazon. In line with the release of its quarterly earnings, the company on Tuesday announced that founder Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO and assume the role of executive chair in the third quarter of 2021. 

Andy Jassy, currently the CEO of Amazon Web Services, which has helped drive profits for the global e-commerce giant in recent years, will take over the top spot. 

"Amazon is what it is because of invention," said Bezos in the release. "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." 

The company also delivered its best quarter ever by revenue with $125.56 billion coming out of the holiday season, compared with $87.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019. 

In a letter to employees that was published on the company's blog, Bezos explained what he will focus on in his new role and commended his replacement. 

"In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives," he wrote. "Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence."

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