GameStop stock plummets, and Bezos steps down at Amazon: CNBC After Hours
CNBC.com's MacKenzie Sigalos brings you the day's top business news headlines. On today's show, CNBC's Leslie Picker explains how the GameStop phenomenon and Robinhood's trading restrictions may affect the app's plans to go public this year. Plus, CNBC's Morgan Brennan breaks down SpaceX's announcement that it will send a civilian crew to space.
Jeff Bezos to step down as Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy to take over in Q3
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will leave his post later this year, turning the helm over to the company's top cloud executive, Andy Jassy, according to an announcement Tuesday. Bezos will transition to executive chairman of Amazon's board.
Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 and has since morphed the one-time online bookstore into a mega-retailer with global reach in a slew of different categories from gadgets to groceries to streaming. Amazon surpassed a $1 trillion market cap under Bezos' leadership in January of last year — it's now worth more than $1.6 trillion.
The company had kept its succession plans quiet, though onlookers speculated that either Jassy or Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon's worldwide consumer business, would be Bezos' eventual successor. In August Amazon announced Wilke will retire in 2021.
GameStop plunges 60%, has lost more than 70% of its value since Friday
Shares of GameStop sank further on Tuesday, with shares of the volatile retail-trader favorite sliding 60% to finish at $90 per share.
The tumble follows a more than 30% drop during the regular market session Monday after finishing at $325 per share on Friday. That brings the two-day loss to 72%.
GameStop's shares have traded wildly in recent weeks after retail traders on a Reddit forum sparked a short squeeze in the stock, a phenomenon where traders who had bet against the stock are forced to buy it to limit their losses, pushing the price even higher.
SpaceX to fly first civilian crew to space later this year, with public competitions for two seats
SpaceX announced on Monday that it will launch four private individuals on a Crew Dragon capsule into orbit around the Earth, dubbed "the world's first all-civilian mission." It is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2021.
The company's spacecraft will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments. The mission, known as Inspiration4, seeks to raise support for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Isaacman is donating the three accompanying seats on the mission "to crew members who will be selected to represent the mission pillars of leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity," SpaceX said in a press release.
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