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Google Is Restructuring Under a New Company Called Alphabet

Posted by samzenpus on from the what's-in-a-name? dept.

Mark Wilson writes: Sundar Pichai is the new CEO of Google as the company undergoes a huge restructuring. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are moving to a new company called Google Alphabet which will serve as an umbrella company for Google and its various projects. Google itself is being, in Page's words, "slimmed down" and the change is quite an extraordinary one. Page quotes the original founders' letter that was written 11 years go. It states that "Google is not a conventional company", and today's announcement makes that perfectly clear. There's a lot to take in...Google Alphabet is, essentially, the new face of Google. Page chose to make the announcement in a blog post that went live after the stock markets closed. This is more than just a rebranding, it is a complete shakeup, the scale of which is almost unprecedented.

3 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. It's called a conglomerate by Thelasko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Google has been slowly changing from a dotcom tech company to a multinational conglomerate for a few years now. This is just them acknowledging that fact and structuring the company accordingly. This is similar to how United Aircraft became United Technologies in the 70s.

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
  2. Re:Prepare Three Envelopes by garyisabusyguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is a sad joke when it actually represents how formulaic business management has become
    Blame predecessor and cronies
    Build wall of well-paid sycophants
    Receive bonus
    Blame organization
    Reorganize
    Receive bonus
    Blame employees
    Outsource
    Receive bonus
    .
    .
    .
    Rinse and Repeat at next company

    --
    Wherever You Go, There You Are
  3. Courts by Etherwalk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It probably also goes some distance to protecting Google's product development from any threats against its advertising business by cranking regulators.

    And courts. This helps to segment Google's advertising business so that if they get slammed by a government for refusing to censor, it's much harder to go after the parent company's assets. It's risk-management for shareholders.