Online retailer Amazon.com Inc., is planning to replace their financial chief after an announcement of his departure Wednesday. Chief Financial Officer Thomas Szkutak will leave his post after more than a dozen years with the e-commerce giant.

Szkutak, 53, will retire next June and will be succeeded by Brian Olsavsky, the current vice president of finance for global consumer business, according to Amazon's announcement.

"Stkutak and Olsavsky will work together to conduct a seamless transition of CFO responsibilities over the next 10 months," Amazon said in a statement.

The timing of the transition comes at a busy time for Amazon. The company, based in Seattle, announced last week that it has made the largest deal to buy live-streaming gaming network Twitch Interactive, beating out bids from Google Inc. for $970 million cash.

Shares for the company are down 15 percent this year already and there is concern among investors about CEO Jeff Bezos spending such large sums on new projects. The looming IPO of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd later in September is also another competitor entering the public market. Alibaba currently handles more e-commerce than Amazon and eBay combined in China.

"Let's hope that the new guy talks slower and is willing to give us more information,"Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said. He and other analysts never spoke to Szkutak in his 12 years with Amazon, Pachter said.

Pachter added he doesn't expect big changes from Olsavsky, who joined Amazon only months before Szkutak in April 2002.

The changeover is one of the highest-profile announcements at Amazon. Szkutak was hired from General Electric Co., and was brought on to Amazon in October 2002.
"[Szkutak's] impact over the past 12 years is evident in every art of our business," Bezos said in a statement. "Under Tom's stewardship, customers have benefited from category expansion and geographical expansion, along with amazing new businesses like AWS and Kindle."