Amazon Taps GE Executive to Be Its CFO

Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest Internet-based retailer, named General Electric Co.’s Thomas Szkutak chief financial officer and senior vice president.

Szkutak, 41, spent more than 20 years at General Electric, the world’s biggest company by market value, and most recently was CFO of the GE lighting unit. He will join Amazon.com in the next few weeks, the retailer said. Szkutak replaces Warren Jenson, 45, who left in June.

Amazon.com has added technology to improve customer service and trim operating expenses. Cost cuts by Jenson, who also worked for General Electric, helped the retailer post its first-ever profit in the fiscal fourth quarter amid the worst holiday shopping season in six years. Companies such as 3M Co. and Home Depot Inc. have hired from GE, which is known for its efficiency.

“The new guy seems to have inherited a company in a relatively strong financial position and moving in the right direction,” said analyst Derek Brown of WR Hambrecht & Co., who rates Amazon.com’s shares “buy” and doesn’t own them.

Jenson was CFO of GE’s NBC broadcast unit from 1992 to 1998. He now is chief financial officer of Redwood City, Calif.-based video game maker Electronic Arts Inc.

Amazon shares fell 23 cents to $14.94 on Nasdaq.