Andy Jassy: Last News

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Amazon, in the midst of paring back its workforce, topped Wall Street forecasts with better-than-expected revenue growth for the first quarter of 2023. The company reported Q1 revenue of $127.4 billion, up 9% year over year, improving over a 7% rise in the year-earlier quarter but still off its historical pace of top-line growth. Net income was $3.2 billion, or 31 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $3.8 billion in Q1 2022 (which included a $7.8 billion loss on its stake in electric-vehicle maker Rivian). The results come as the ecommerce colossus is in the middle of laying off 9,000 workers, on top of the 18,000 job cuts announced in January. On Thursday, the company laid off about 100 employees at Amazon Studios and Prime Video.

Amazon has apparently rediscovered its mojo.

As rival motion picture studios were becoming intoxicated on theatrical day-and-date releases tied to their streaming platforms during Covid, and big streamers like Netflix completely sidestepping wide theatrical releases, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav believed in the economics of the big picture.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After a strategic review, Amazon intends to lay off 9,000 more employees — on top of the 18,000 job cuts it previously announced, CEO Andy Jassy announced Monday. The latest round of cuts will mostly affect employees in Amazon Web Services (AWS), People, Experience and Technology (PXT), advertising and Twitch divisions, according to Jassy. The company’s senior management team expects to make final decisions on which jobs will be eliminated by “mid to late April,” the CEO said. “This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term,” Jassy wrote.

Amazon is laying off another 9,000 workers as job cuts in the tech sector expand at a time of growing economic uncertainty. It follows cuts last fall and early this year.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor David Zaslav sounds tired of taking lumps. After months of cost cutting, write-downs, and getting pilloried among Hollywood natives for killing projects, the Warner Bros. Discovery chief showed off some new truculence, making the case that while his newly-merged company has been having a tough time, so too were others. “‘Last year was a year of restructuring,” said Zaslav, during a call with investors Thursday. “This year will be a year of building.” Over the course of an hour, Zasalv and Gunnar Wiedenfels, Warner’s chief financial officer, made the case that their company was just as well-equipped as any of its rivals — perhaps even more so — to withstand a stormy era during which media companies are pressed to grow their streaming operations but maintain profitability. Zaslav elbowed Netflix for releasing all of the episodes for a program’s cycle all at once; suggested that a move to launch new “Lord of the Rings” movies would take away some of the momentum that Amazon had enjoyed from its launch of a series based on the novels; and told listeners Warner Bros. Discovery could launch an ad-supported streaming service without having to buy an outside asset, as Fox Corp. and Paramount Global had. “We can create a Tubi or a Pluto without having to buy anybody,” he boasted.

With the pandemic easing, returning to the office isn’t so cool for some who’ve settled into working from home.

Warner Bros Discovery chief executive David Zaslav earned $232 million in excess compensation in 2021, according to As You Sow’s latest annual ranking of the most overpaid CEOs among S&P 500 companies. Amazon, Apple, Disney and Netflix are also high up in the group’s ninth report that looks beyond total pay in its own attempt to quantify overpay and draw attention to some pressing issues in the space.

UPDATED with content spend stats from annual report: Giant Amazon said its total expenses for video and music came to $16.6 billion last year, up from $13 billion in 2021.

Amazon’s future in streaming video has come into greater focus in 2022 with the acquisitions of Thursday Night Football and MGM and the debut of LOTR: The Rings Of Power. Now, the onetime bookseller is headed into 2023 without the main architect of its expansion into TV and film via Prime Video, Jeff Blackburn.

Prime Video has supplanted Netflix as the No. 1 subscription streaming outlet in the U.S. in an annual ranking compiled by research firm Parks Associates. (See full chart below.)

The Kyrie Irving-boosted book and film Hebrews to Negroes: Wake up Black America will remain for sale on Amazon, CEO Andy Jassy confirmed, despite a celebrity-backed petition calling for their removal.

Amazon shares plunged more than 20% after hours after shedding 4% during the regular trading day after the company became the latest tech giant to stumble in the third quarter.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDave Clark, Amazon’s CEO of Worldwide Consumer, is resigning from the ecommerce powerhouse after 23 years.He will leave Amazon effective July 1, 2022. Clark is the highest-profile executive departure for Amazon since Andy Jassy took over as CEO last year, when founder Jeff Bezos relinquished the reins.Clark announced his departure Friday on Twitter, writing, “I’ve had an incredible time at Amazon but it’s time for me to build again.

Amazon saw revenue nose up 7% to $116 billion but swung to a net loss of $3.8 billion in the first quarter of 2022 from a profit of $8.1 million the year before. Its Q2 outlook disappointed the Street and investors dinged the stock, which is off 7% in after-hours trading.

Following its MGM purchase, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy anticipates a continued ramp up of investment in entertainment as Prime Video content proves highly successful in spurring signups of Amazon Prime.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAmazon chief executive officer Andy Jassy’s compensation last year totaled $212.7 million, a nearly sixfold increase from his pay package in 2020 when he headed the tech giant’s AWS division.Virtually all of Jassy’s 2021 comp — $211.9 million — was in restricted stock that vests over the next 10 years, according to Amazon’s proxy statement filed Friday. His base salary was $175,000, unchanged from the two prior years; in addition, Amazon paid $589,149 in security expenses for the CEO.Founder Jeff Bezos, who assumed the role of executive chair when Jassy took the helm July 5, earned a salary of $81,840 ​last year, the same as the two years prior, per Amazon’s filing.

Andy Jassy, a longtime Amazon exec who became the company’s CEO last summer, made $212.7 million in total compensation in 2021, according to an SEC filing.

“For many of you, I know that returning to the office represents a long-awaited milestone and a positive sign that we can engage more fully with the colleagues who play such an important role in our lives,” Cook said in a memo. “For others, it may also be an unsettling change.”

Amazon has announced the the annual and monthly membership costs for Amazon Prime are going to be rising in the coming weeks.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorAmazon posted 15% growth in revenue for the third quarter, but it missed Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom lines — and CEO Andy Jassy said the online retailing giant expects to incur several additional billions of dollars in costs in Q4.Sales increased 15% to $110.8 billion in Q3, whereas the company’s revenue had grown 27% in Q2 and 44% in Q1.