One can only assume that before Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose Alphabet as the name for their new holding company, they Googled it.
“Google is not a conventional company. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main internet products contained in Alphabet instead”, said Page. Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, Google’s former Senior Vice President of products will now become the CEO of Google under Alphabet.
All Google shares and rights will be converted to Alphabet but will remain as GOOGL and GOOG on Nasdaq.
At Google, he started out with heading products such as the company’s new web browser Chrome and later most of Google’s consumer software portfolio including the Android operating system.
The company’s mysterious X lab, responsible for developing initiatives such as drone delivery business Project Wing, will now operate under Alphabet, as will its Life Sciences division, which is developing a glucose-sensing contact lens.
“We also like that it means alpha-bet (Alpha is investment return above benchmark), which we strive for”, he added.
On the reverse, there had been concerns that the dominance of Google in its sector had reached its peak.
But it remains to be seen how much more the company actually will disclose.
He said the move would make Google “cleaner and more accountable”. It was also announced that the new head of Google was going to be Sundar Pichai, who is a top executive at the firm.
Other than the name of the new parent, and news of Pichai’s appointment as Google CEO, Page did not provide many details on any additional changes that would result from the reorganization. “Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related”. Google financials will be broken out from the rest of the Alphabet businesses.
After this news came out, the shares of Google shot up by 7% and are now at $708.
After Google’s announcement, many in the tech community said that the company’s move might create confusion with regards to properly identifying the difference between Google and Alphabet. Each mini-company underneath Alphabet would have its own CEO and leadership organization. “It is easier to make the case to regulators that companies are separate entities if they only share an owner rather than being run as one huge super-brand”.