'Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt': Jeff Bezos makes surprise admission about Amazon's lifespan
*Jeff Bezos told Amazon employees that he predicts "one day Amazon will fail," according to a recording of an internal meeting heard by CNBC.
*Bezos added that Amazon's job is to delay failure for as long as possible by focussing on its customers.
*Amazon staffers told CNBC that issues such as government regulation and potential antitrust violations worry them.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made a stunning admission last week in an all-hands meeting, a recording of which was heard by CNBC.
With the company valued at just shy of $1 trillion and Bezos being the richest man in modern history, the Amazon CEO said his 24-year-old firm is far from invincible.
"Amazon is not too big to fail... In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt. If you look at large companies, their lifespans tend to be 30-plus years, not a hundred-plus years," Bezos reportedly said when addressing a question about Sears recently going bankrupt.
While history shows that no empire lasts forever, it is unusual for any CEO - particularly a boss of one of the world's most successful companies - to talk down their firm in such unvarnished terms.
Bezos said the goal was to delay the inevitable for as long as possible - and the way to do that was to focus on customers.
"If we start to focus on ourselves, instead of focusing on our customers, that will be the beginning of the end... We have to try and delay that day for as long as possible," he said.
Several Amazon employees who spoke to CNBC on condition of anonymity said government regulation and potential antitrust violations are "big concerns" when they look to the future of the company.
"It's a fact that we're a large company," Bezos said in the recording heard by CNBC. "It's reasonable for large institutions of any kind, whether it be companies or governments, to be scrutinized."
Amazon this week announced it is going to expand into two new locations for its second headquarters, dubbed "HQ2," which will mean an increase of roughly 50,000 employees.