David Limp, the senior vice president of devices and services at Amazon, has announced plans to retire in the coming months.

The 13-year Amazon veteran oversees the company's Alexa voice assistant business, along with its line of Echo smart speakers. The news comes at a time when Amazon is conducting heavy layoffs to the devices & services team, with Business Insider reporting in late 2022 that the division was losing as much as $10 billion per year.

The news was announced via a blog post on Amazon’s corporate website. “It's time,” he wrote: “I have been doing a version of this job (building and shipping consumer electronics) on and off for 30+ years. I love it, but I also want [to] look into the future through a different lens.

“I am not sure what that future is right now, with the notable exception that it won’t be in the consumer electronics space.”

In his note, Limp maintained that he is still bullish about the devices and services business, and that he maintains a positive relationship with the company.

Before the blog was published, the news was broken by the Wall Street Journal which noted that despite selling more than 500 million Alexa-enabled devices since the first Echo’s launch in 2014, Amazon has struggled to monetize this area.

Praising the outgoing Limp, Amazon chief executive officer Andy Jassy said: “Under Dave’s leadership, Amazon has become one of the world’s leading innovators in building devices and underlying services that customers love.

“Dave has been an outstanding innovator, exhibited strong judgement and ownership, and built a strong organisation with high standards. He has also been somebody whose counsel and insights I’ve valued immensely (both in my prior role and current one), and who has always prioritised what matters most for the company.”

Jassy confirmed that Limp’s successor will be announced “in the coming weeks” and that he will remain in situ “for the next few months.”

This is the latest senior departure since Jassy was promoted from head of Amazon Web Services to take over from company founder Jeff Bezos in 2021. Other high-profile exits include retail and logistics chief Dave Clark, media and entertainment boss Jeff Blackburn, senior vice president of global customer fulfilment Alicia Boler Davis and top public relations executive Jay Carney.

Share Story: