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Visitors stream online computer games on the Twitch Interactive stand at Gamescom video games trade fair in Cologne, Germany.
Krisztian Bocsi | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Emmett Shear, the CEO of Amazon‘s livestreaming service Twitch, is stepping down from his role effective immediately, the company announced Thursday.
Amazon acquired Twitch for almost $1 billion in 2014. The site is most known as a popular livestreaming platform for video gamers. After buying Twitch, Amazon was largely hands off with the business, though it has offered Prime subscribers perks on the livestreaming platform, such as free games and in-game loot.
Shear will be replaced by Twitch President Dan Clancy, who has been a “close partner” to Shear, he wrote in a blog post. Shear said he’s stepping away to spend more time with his newborn son. Shear will continue to work at Twitch in an advisory role.
“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 resignation adds to a recent exodus of leadership under CEO Andy Jassy. Earlier this month, Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff announced he was stepping down from his role at the home security subsidiary. Last year, executives overseeing Amazon’s Alexa and hardware research and development group, known as Lab126, exited the company. Last July, public policy chief Jay Carney announced he was leaving to join Airbnb, and 23-year Amazon veteran Dave Clark resigned as retail chief the same month.
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