(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said the world's biggest online retailer will take increased government scrutiny in its stride and shouldn't take such close examination personally.
During Amazon's annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday in Seattle, Bezos said all large institutions, including corporations, should invite scrutiny, adding that the company has grown from 30,000 employees in 2010 to nearly 600,000 today.
“Don't take it personally, because if you do take it personally you start doing things that are counterproductive,” Bezos said. “We have to conduct ourselves in a way that when we are scrutinized, we pass with flying colors.”
As the company has grown from an online bookseller into the world's second most-valuable corporation, it has been criticized by lawmakers, including President Donald Trump, who has charged it doesn't pay enough taxes and gets an overly generous deal from the U.S. Postal Service.
Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared at the annual meeting in Seattle and made a plug for Amazon to locate its second headquarters in Chicago.
To contact the reporter on this story: Spencer Soper in Seattle at ssoper@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jillian Ward at jward56@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr
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