Amazon announced on Thursday that Emmett Shear, the CEO of Twitch, the live streaming service, would be leaving his position immediately.
In 2014, Amazon paid almost $1 billion for Twitch. The site is best known as a place where video gamers can stream live events. Subsequent to purchasing Jerk, Amazon was generally uninvolved with the business, however it has offered Prime endorsers advantages on the live streaming stage, like free games and in-game plunder.
In a blog post, he said that Twitch President Dan Clancy will take Shear’s place. Clancy has been Shear’s “close partner.” Shear stated that he would be taking a break to spend more time with his infant son. Shear will continue to serve as an advisor at Twitch.
“With the arrival of my son, the time has come for me to focus my energies on building that tiny little startup family, and I’m ready to dedicate my energies there,” Shear wrote. “Twitch will always remain part of my extended family, a community where I grew in so many ways alongside Twitch itself.”
Shear’s departure adds to the recent leadership turnover under CEO Andy Jassy. Jamie Siminoff, CEO of Ring, made the announcement earlier this month that he would be leaving his position at the home security subsidiary. Amazon’s Alexa and hardware research and development group, Lab126, was led by executives who left the company last year. Jay Carney, head of public policy, announced in July that he would be joining Airbnb, and Dave Clark, a 23-year Amazon veteran, resigned from his position as head of retail in the same month.
