Visitors stream computer games online at the Twitch Interactive stand at the Gamescom video game trade exhibition in Cologne, Germany.
Christian Bocsi Bloomberg Getty Images
Emmett Shear, CEO of AmazonLivestreaming service Twitch is stepping down from its position effective Thursday, the company announced Thursday.
Amazon acquired Twitch for nearly $1 billion in 2014. The site is best known as a popular livestreaming platform for video gamers. After buying Twitch, Amazon has largely given up on the business, although it has offered Prime subscribers perks on the livestreaming platform, such as free games and game loot.
Shear will be replaced by Twitch President Dan Clancy, who has been a “close partner” with Shear, he wrote in a blog post. Shear said he left 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, it’s time for me to focus my energy on building that little startup family, and I’m ready to put my energy into that,” Shear wrote. “Twitch will always be part of my extended family, a community that I grew up with in many ways along with Twitch itself.”
Shear’s resignation adds to the 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, the executive who oversaw the hardware research and development group and Amazon’s Alexa, known as Lab126, left the company. Last July, public policy chief Jay Carney announced he was leaving to join Airbnb, and 23-year Amazon veteran Dave Clark stepped down as retail chief the same month.
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