On August 10th, Google took everyone by surprise announcing a massive company restructuring. At first, it might have sounded as typical Google April’s fool joke, but it’s true – The search giant has just unveils that it’s forming a new umbrella company called Alphabet, which will be the new parent company for Google and for a number of other small companies.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be the bosses of Alphabet. Larry Page is taking the role of CEO and Sergey Brin is taking the role of president, while Eric Schmidt will become the executive chairman of Alphabet.
The company also announces that Sundar Pichai is taking over the CEO position of Google Inc.
You probably already know Sundar Pichai. He started in Google back in 2004, he’s the senior vice president of product, and you might have seen him giving the keynote at Google I/O 2015.
Alphabet will collect all Google’s companies under one name. The biggest company under Alphabet is, of course, Google, which will continue its focus on internet services, such as search, ads, YouTube, Chrome, Android, Google Maps, and apps.
Then we have the other Google divisions that will become Alphabet subsidiaries, including Google X lab, which focus on driverless cars, Google Glass, and drone delivery. There is also Calico (increasing longevity), Life Science (Google contact lenses), and the robotics division, Sidewalk, Nest, and Fiber.
In addition, Google Capital and Google Ventures will become smaller companies own by Alphabet.
On the public announcement made by the company, Larry Page stated:
“We are not intending for this to be a big consumer brand with related products — the whole point is that Alphabet companies should have independence and develop their own brands.”
According to the company, the new restructuring will help its subsidiaries to be more independent. Each company under Alphabet will be able to explore and expand independently without affecting other parts of the company or investors.
Page also explains why they have chosen the name “Alphabet”:
“We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search! We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for!”
Finally, Google stock will become Alphabet stock, but the company will continue to trade under the GOOGL and GOOG ticker symbols; the new change will occur later in the year.
No surprising, Alphabet also has a website (abc.xyz), which include the announcement and a hidden link to the Hooli.xyz website for the HBO TV show Silicon Valley.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 14 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 20 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].