Google Is Restructuring Under a New Company Called Alphabet

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.

Comments

Alphabulous News

[Anonymous Coward]

Alphabulous News!

Re:Alphabulous News

[Adriax]

They were going to use the tagline "Alphabits and Bytes!", but Post would get litigious.

Seems like stockholders...

[garyisabusyguy]

may have been getting a little impatient with the many directions that Google was going in.

This allows Google to focus on making money from advertisements, while Alphabet can makes bets on many different products

At least that is my take on it

Re:Seems like stockholders...

[MightyMartian]

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

Re:Seems like stockholders...

[phantomfive]

Google hired a new CFO. CFOs like to structure things. It's the most fun they get in a day. Thus he created a new corporate structure for Google, that looks exactly like the old structure but more formal.

Also, who knew that Google invested venture capital in Blue Bottle coffee?

Re:Seems like stockholders...

[gl4ss]

not really at all. the stock doesn't change. the guys who are responsible for what inside google doesn't actually change. it doesn't let anyone focus on whatever any more, it just lets them emphasize one profit number more than actual profit.

THIS IS JUST A REBRANDING. nothing, nothing else. the position of the stock owners doesn't change one bit.

it is just a rebranding and the addition that the "google" finances are reported quarterly separately. it's just a rebranding that makes the google numbers seem better (if you consider that almost all other google alphabet projects are money losing r&d projects).

it's just rebranding trickery. the chain of command doesn't actually change at all, that's evident from the blog posting once you look past the words to the actual meaning of the words, the new guy stays as operational chief of google while larry and sergei do whatever vanity projects they want while still being money allocators for google alphabet and still being ceo and the president of all things google alphabet - it's just that the new guy gets to be CEO of google that's owned by google alphabet and he answers to the ceo/president of google alphabet.

in effect it's just a re-branding with the addition of adding one "ceo" position(the new google ceo position in organizational chart is directly under the google alphabet ceo though so that again is just playing with words, nothing actually changes.

oh how very google. I give it 3 years and they'll re-brand it back.

their shares will even continue to trade in exact same two classes as before in exactly the same fashion owing exactly the same things!

it's a really pointless puzzling rebranding to be honest. normal people aren't going to care in the slightest, people investing in the stock shouldn't care - nobody needs to care about this announcement one bit! it's so pointless I'm thinking that they just bought abc.xyz for big money and then thought just hey wtf we do this and came up with this while smelling their own farts while sipping on some kool-aid.

Re:Seems like stockholders...

[Anonymous Coward]

That fits in with groups like the N.S.A., F.B.I, D.E.A., etc. Soon enough, A.B.C. will be nationalized and then we can all K.O.A.G.

captcha: ultimate

Re:Seems like stockholders...

[tverbeek]

Except that the stockholders still own stock in a company going in all those directions.

I think this is more about Larry and Sergey putting a trusted lieutenant in charge of the stuff they're a little bored with, so he can focus on that stuff, while they get to focus their attention on other more new and interesting (to them) stuff.

So?

[Anonymous Coward]

Any idea how this will translate into yet another tax dodge for Google?

Re:So?

[garyisabusyguy]

Google can show a profit or their shareholders, while Google Alphabet can show a loss so that the majority share holders in that company can reduce their tax bill, at least until they sell their shares

Re:So?

[Spy Handler]

No. Google and Alphabet won't have separate stock. Google will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet. Like, you can't buy Chevrolet stock, you can only buy GM stock.

Existing Google shares will simply be converted to Alphabet shares.

Re:So?

[Hognoxious]

Don't be silly, you can't put the good bits in bag and all the shite in another.

Unless you're a bank.

Re:So?

[garyisabusyguy]

Srsly?

Why not? See Berkshire Hathaway reference above where one company holds controlling interest in multiple companies.

Re:So?

[exomondo]

Not so sure about that, it could become like Berkshire Hathaway where a single company controls multiple companies, each with their own publicly traded stock

Except that it couldn't be clearer:

"Alphabet Inc. will replace Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights. Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet."
From the blog post

Which is exactly what Spy Handler said.

Re:So?

[Optic7]

The article where I first read this news said the same thing:

http://www.theguardian.com/tec...

All shares of Google will automatically convert into corresponding shares of Alphabet, which will continue to trade under the stock ticker symbols GOOG and GOOGL. Shares in Google soared 5% in after hours trading. The new structure is said to be similar to Warren Buffettâ(TM)s Berkshire Hathaway, which wholly owns a number of diverse holdings and has stakes in several others.

Re:So?

[garyisabusyguy]

How long would you expect it to stay that way before profitable companies get their own IPOs?

Re:So?

[exomondo]

How long would you expect it to stay that way before profitable companies get their own IPOs?

How long is a piece of string? I'm not going to speculate on the many different things that may or may not happen in various scenarios. Just that what you speculated here is not what is happening given the way the new organisation has been structured.

Re:So?

[Lunix Nutcase]

Can you just admit you were wrong?

Re:So?

[thebigmacd]

Berkshire Hathaway owns 60 companies outright, taking them private through acquisition. Buffet didn't make his insane annual returns by controlling public companies, he did it by owning companies outright and shuffling capital from one to the other. There is only one tax return for 60+ companies, filed by Berkshire Hathaway.

Berkshire's investment in public stock (Coca Cola, Wells Fargo, etc) is mainly through investment of insurance float by its subsidiaries.

The myth that Berkshire Hathaway made its money by controlling publicly-traded companies is common. In fact, it is antithetical to Buffet's operating style. He is beholden to no one. If you want to share in his success you have to buy BRK.B and wait for long-term capital gains; you can't buy into his companies individually.

Re:So?

[R3d M3rcury]

Or GM...

Re:So?

[exomondo]

Read the context of the discussion thread.

That they don't do that right now doesn't matter.

Well actually it does, they're going to find it hard to implement that tax dodge described here until they actually do it.

Re:So?

[Dahamma]

I would make zero sense financially anytime remotely soon - the new "Google" generates almost ALL of the revenue. They basically spun off all of the long term risky plays (their longevity and biotech research, Google X, Google Ventures) into separate companies. That way they can reduce their risk to the cash cow that is Google search/ads/apps.

Re:So?

[Dahamma]

That's one thing I find so funny about all of the cheesy ads you see like "learn how Warren Buffet makes money", "invest like Buffet", etc. While there definitely lessons that can be learned (consider stocks good dividend, those with a solid product vs speculation, go for long term value, etc) in the end if you *really* want to invest like Buffet you need to buy struggling companies and make them profitable. Good luck for 99.99% of the investors out there :)

Though I guess technically buying BRK.B (BRK.A if you have a couple hundred grand lying around) would mean you are investing exactly like Buffet. Hardly requires an expensive seminar to learn, that, though...

Re:So?

[KGIII]

I do not have much but I do love my BRK.A stocks. They hold money for me until I need it and they grow fairly regularly. Those are not part of my play portfolio. That is probably a good thing.

Re:So?

[slew]

This does nothing to reduce corporate risk as all the companies are all wholly owned subsidiaries.

This move is simply to create more transparency into the financials that google search/ads/apps is providing the company to the large shareholders and create more chairs to promote C-level people (who might want to leave Google for career development).

FWIW, a good bullet to have on your resume is Profit/Loss responsibility to get/keep a ticket to the C-level clubhouse. If a Googler didn't have a way to get that at Google, they might be tempted to jump ship (and many have done so). By creating more deck chairs (by creating more companies within their conglomerate where they have to actually have to do separate P/L reporting) is a clever way to keep these people in the fold a bit longer (because gives them a chance to get their ticket punched). Of course wall street was clamoring for more transparency anyhow, so this kills 2 birds with 1 stone.

Re:So?

[slew]

Previously, Google would not have been able to sell a new stock of "just" (Internet Search Only) Google, or for any of their individual projects, it was all one thing.

Actually, that is categorically not true. A company can create a "tracking" stock for a subsidiary or even a business function (like search), as long as it was willing to break out the reporting of that function.

The problem is that tracking stocks are not generally favored anymore by the street and probably wouldn't really work anyhow with the current Google structure (where Larry and Sergey have super-voting rights) as such a tracking stock would suffer the same albatross as GOOGL vs GOOG.

The value of what they have done is simply to provide more transparency about their businesses to the street and provide more deck chairs for potential C-level googlers that might want to defect. That's actually good value, but has nothing to do with being able to issue a stock for part of their business.

Re:So?

[Dahamma]

This does nothing to reduce corporate risk as all the companies are all wholly owned subsidiaries.

Of course it does. That's the entire purpose of corporations! Limited liability means the owners have, say it: LIMITED LIABILITY. Doesn't matter if it's 100,000 shareholders or 1. The shareholder(s) are not liable for outstanding debts of that corporation, and if it declares bankruptcy the shareholders won't lose any more than the their shares. Just because those shares are private held doesn't mean it's much different.

Same reason Donald Trump can have 4 companies he owns declare bankruptcy and still be worth billions. He's a douche, but he (or his lawyers) understands US corporate law. Unlike you...

Prepare Three Envelopes

[Anonymous Coward]

A fellow had just been hired as the new CEO of a large high tech corporation. The CEO who was stepping down met with him privately and presented him with three numbered envelopes. "Open these if you run up against a problem you don't think you can solve," he said.

Well, things went along pretty smoothly, but six months later, sales took a downturn and he was really catching a lot of heat. About at his wit's end, he remembered the envelopes. He went to his drawer and took out the first envelope. The message read, "Blame your predecessor."

The new CEO called a press conference and tactfully laid the blame at the feet of the previous CEO. Satisfied with his comments, the press -- and Wall Street - responded positively, sales began to pick up and the problem was soon behind him.

About a year later, the company was again experiencing a slight dip in sales, combined with serious product problems. Having learned from his previous experience, the CEO quickly opened the second envelope. The message read, "Reorganize." This he did, and the company quickly rebounded.

After several consecutive profitable quarters, the company once again fell on difficult times. The CEO went to his office, closed the door and opened the third envelope.

The message said, "Prepare three envelopes."

Re:Prepare Three Envelopes

[garyisabusyguy]

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

Re:Prepare Three Envelopes

[sociocapitalist]

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

Could add 'sell proprietary technology to highest bidder (China cough)' to make huge short term profits with lasting negative impact that the CEO will never see

Re:Prepare Three Envelopes

[garyisabusyguy]

Um, yeah...

Imagine a world where people see something, derive value from it and then add to it in order to provide more value.

Yes, what a desolate wasteland that would be with people improving things and then spreading those improvements around for other people to use... It would be a shame that anybody would imagine such a thing

Even better would be to take some idea, claim ownership over it and then attack anybody who would attempt to re-apply or extend that idea into something more useful

Thank you AC, you have just demonstrated why closed source patent trolls are superior to open source idea sharers, thanks for educating us all with your brilliance

Whut

[astro]

This has got to be a joke somehow, right? I find this shocking.

Re:Whut

[evilbessie]

Yes, Alphabet is becoming an Umbrella Corporation, this cannot end badly.

Re:Whut

[TWX]

I predict a lot of whackers driving around in retired cop cars with fake badges and radios, with lightbars on top that are barely legal since they have no red or blue bulbs, with "Umbrella Corporation" painted on where "To Serve and Protect" would normally go, and with "REACT TEAM" and some sketchy homage to an official seal painted on the doors...

Re:Whut

[Noah Haders]

google changes its name to Omni Consumer Products...

25 more letters

[billybob2001]

Makes a change from everything they do being just Beta.

Re:25 more letters

[electrosoccertux]

actually, this is actually just an actually very regressive change. they actually are just going to be sticking with Alpha and Beta software stages. That's why they're actually calling the new organization ALPHA-BET-a.

if this doesn't work out the plan is actually to just rename it Spaghettios.

captcha: actually

Re:25 more letters

[codeButcher]

I believe that's just 23 letters.

No, I'm not a pedant. I think "smarty-pants" is a more appropriate term.

In other words

[DaMattster]

Google employees should be in fear of losing their jobs. Corporate speak .....

Re:In other words

[Anonymous Coward]

Slimming down might have that connotation, but to me it's a marketing issue, and I'll illuminate this by using .NET as the example. Back in 2001, when I worked at MS, there was this new language named C# and this new framework named .NET. Microsoft's failure to capitalize like Sun did with Java on the internet made the developer division marketing attempt to rectify this position. Well, soon Office .NET and Windows .NET marketing inside the company came about, and the .NET Framework team screamed at the others saying: don't dilute our trademarks. You are not .NET. We are.

So here we have Google News and Google Plus and Google Maps and Google Google. The Google name itself has in some ways become generic like .NET would have been had the .NET framework team put a stop to its usage around the company. So instead of GoogleX Self-Driving Cars coming out later this year, or GoogleX VR headset, or Google Android, or Google Chrome, it will just be whatever these separate divisions name themselves as the marketing - they will sink or swim on their own merits and have their own branding. Google will still be the search engine.

That's all you should read into this announcement.

Re:It's August now, right?

[Noah Haders]

I'm pretty sure it's a prank. lulz!

Figures. Alphabet...

[Anonymous Coward]

Google's shit never quite makes it through beta.

A couple points

[93 Escort Wagon]

First, the new parent company is just called "Alphabet" - not "Google Alphabet", as the summary claims.

Second, on the face of it this seems more like a rebranding than anything else. Nothing seems to be changing; they're just renaming "Google" to "Alphabet", and then repurposing the Google name to be used for one already-existing division within the renamed company. It doesn't sound like anything functional is really changing, which belies the idea this is a "massive reorganization".

Re:A couple points

[Earthquake Retrofit]

It was a stupid name anyway. Even when I was a fan I didn't like it. I for one welcome our new Alphabet-as-a-verb overlord.

Re:A couple points

[Earthquake Retrofit]

...it it will become just one of several companies under the Alphabet umbrella. It's a refactoring and a modularization.

Not just refactoring and modularization. From a press release:

In order to re-intermediate Google's methodologies and fungibly target an expanded array of elastic corporate deliverables, we are unable to synergistically engage in enabled convergence and be more assertive in seizing multi-functional content in collaborative, target-scalable alignments at this time.

Now I get it.

Re: A couple points

[bigtomrodney]

England?

Re:A couple points

[Blaskowicz]

Alphabet is both a French and a German word, and it doesn't stop there. Go on the wikipedia page for alphabet (the real thing, not the conglomerate) and look at the many language options on the left column, mouse over them : majority of languages there have it as "alphabet" and very minor variations such as "alfabet", "alfabeto". Russian has it as "Alphabet", just written in Cyrillic.
Same for many languages I don't recognize, or such languages as Turkish, Kurd, both Norwegian, Swedish, Basque.

.xyz gTLD

[Anonymous Coward]

The summary neglected to mention that the URL for Alphabet will be (and I'm not kidding) http://abc.xyz.

(Personally, I associate the .xyz domain with email spammers, but who am I to question their judgement?)

"Unconventional"

[Anonymous Coward]

Google is not a conventional company. It'll rob you in ways you've never imagine before, and will continue to rob you as it morph itself in ways you cannot even begin to imagine.

Re:"Unconventional"

[ozzee]

No, that's pretty conventional nowadays.

Conversations will now go like this:

[wonkey_monkey]

- So, there's this new Alphabet project-

- You mean Google project?

- Yeah. So anyway, this new project...

Re:Conversations will now go like this:

[ArsonSmith]

Let me Alphabet that for you.

Google = Surveillance + Antitrust, Alphabet=reboot

[BlueMoss]

Ed Snowden's revelations, and the continuing antitrust actions against Google, have created the ripe conditions for a name change and image overhaul.

Think about Blackwater and its name changing over Chelsea Manning's black eye.

Tax purposes . . . ?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Maybe this change has just a simple purpose in enabling Google to avoid paying taxes . . . ? I mean, in which country will the "Google Letters, A-Z" be incorporated? Ireland? The Cayman Islands . . . ? Will one Google Alphabet subsidiary own other subsidiaries . . . ?

Google could an opaque corporate structure, that would be undecipherable to tax authorities in different countries.

Re:Tax purposes . . . ?

[aaron4801]

Already done. Google's been under government heat for some time about taxes precisely because they use all legal loopholes available to them. My first thought was that this makes it easier to spin off ancillary companies like Nest that don't contribute much to the core Google business. If they go ahead and reorganize every unit as its own "company," it will add a new layer of bureaucracy, but also more accountability to each new CEO to make their business profitable. It's possible this is as simple as the board getting fed up with pet projects that fail (*cough*GPlus*cough*) and they want better return on investments without tying up the whole conglomerate as unwilling partners in those experiments.

Re:Tax purposes . . . ?

[mjwx]

Maybe this change has just a simple purpose in enabling Google to avoid paying taxes

No, this is just the preceding steps before they release their new line of soups.

Re:Tax purposes . . . ?

[KGIII]

I'd try that but it would probably spell out ads and spy on my internals as it moved through my system. I just can't risk it.

Re:Tax purposes . . . ?

[mjwx]

I'd try that but it would probably spell out ads and spy on my internals as it moved through my system. I just can't risk it.

Coke adds life? I dont remember eating that.

Re:Tax purposes . . . ?

[cdrudge]

Google's been under government heat for some time about taxes precisely because they use all legal loopholes available to them.

How dare they use the tax code against the people that wrote and control it!

It's called a conglomerate

[Thelasko]

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.

Re:Google+

[Hognoxious]

If they want to revert the same, then this guy is the needful.

Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[duckintheface]

The letter from Page could not be more clear. The new company name is Alphabet. Google is a wholly owned subsidiary of the new company along with YouTube, and other companies that will be created with their own CEOs.

GOOGL and GOOG stocks will continue to trade under those symbols, although the shares will actually be in the new Alphabet.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[Anonymous Coward]

With the announcement of decoupling Google- from YouTube and now this, why does YouTube still require a fucking Google- account to post?

It's just one big series of lies with Google, isn't it?

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[ColdWetDog]

Like that matters around here?

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[Anonymous Coward]

He's obviously trying to get what he thinks is important information modded up by placing it higher within the discussion.

This isn't an unreasonable thing to do. In fact, it's often quite necessary, given how Slashdot's mod system is pretty badly broken. It may not be completely broken, like reddit's, or Hacker News', or Stack Overflow's are, but it's still broken.

When you combine a limited number of mods, each with a limited number of mod points, and the propensity people have for not reading through all of the comments before using those mod points, the comments that appear highest within the discussion tend to get modded up the most.

Excellent comments that just happened to get posted later tend to be totally ignored, with comparatively shitty comments posted earlier getting the mod points first, just because they appear first when reading the comments from the top down.

So some people are inclined to work around this broken mod system by putting their comments up as early as possible within the discussion.

We can't blame them for doing that. What we should blame is the broken mod system that forces such behavior.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[duckintheface]

Read the OP post! The company is twice referred to as Google Alphabet. This is completely unnecessary and really confusing to anyone trying to sort out what has happened.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[duckintheface]

You are wise and perceptive. And modded a 0.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[tepples]

why does YouTube still require a fucking Google- account to post?

By "Google- account" are you sarcastically referring to Google+? I thought YouTube dropped the Google+ requirement.

Or by "Google- account" do you mean a Google account that is "minus" the Google+ profile?

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting to note that there is already a BMW group company called Alphabet. BMW also appears to own the domain alphabet.com. Hope their servers can handle the load of the curious. https://www.alphabet.com/en-gb

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[tepples]

In context it could be interpreted either of two ways.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[electrosoccertux]

Like that matters around here?

I'm going to go ahead and spill it so that everyone can abuse it: you reply to the highest most comment to get more visibility, and thus potentially more mod exposure.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[circuitauvietnam]

haha... you're right

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[houghi]

So what is the solution? At this moment I think that /. has the best system as it looks a bit like Usenet.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[soap_and_dish]

All of the problems about timing - early posts being more visible and thus getting modded higher, posts being sorted by time posted and thus the earlier ones being at the top, early posts being the only ones shown in a 500+ comment thread - all of those points are true and problematic. Don't blame the limited number of mod points or the limited number of mods though, those are things working in our favor. That, plus the low cap for up-mods and the fact that mods can't post, are reasons why Slashdot's system works better than Reddit's, et. al.

If we just change how comments are sorted it would go a long way towards addressing our moderation problems.

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[bev_tech_rob]

No...the new site is http://abc.xyz/ not Alphabet.com

Re:Alphabet... not Google Alphabet

[doccus]

So.. all you Google coders will now be coding in.. Alpha Bits? Or is it Alpha Bytes? RTeally, I thought it was a practical joke when I first heard it. So, SERIOUSLY, Is the guy who has introduced all these doomed Google excperiments ..Y'know.. the ones where they say .,,, "In retrospect, it was a bad idea we should not have attempted".. going to restructure the company and call it Alphabet? And THIS is a good idea? If I were a Google stockholder I'd reallly think about divesting into.. Apple ? No not Apple either. They always fall from the trree and rot at their EOL. Microsoft? Unsure.. GOT IT. THrow it all into Put options on QNX and Blackberry. After all the "smart money" says Bl;ackberry is toast, eventually. THey don't know about QNX though.... Bye Bye Goo.. er.. Alphabet.

Alphabet was their second choice

[PopeRatzo]

Apparently, someone already owns the rights to "Evil Corp".

Re:Alphabet was their second choice

[circletimessquare]

they could have had such trollish fun

and called it "Skynet"

Allows Google to maintain "Don't be evil" mantra.

[Anonymous Coward]

...but not necessarily its new sister companies.

Moving their eggs out of the same (legal) basket.

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it would not surprise me if this were being done for legal protection. Google has diversified in so many different areas since its original creation, and many of these different areas have had their fair share of legal difficulties. Presently any legal attack on one of these areas is an attack on Google as a whole. By splitting the company into a bunch of separate legal entities, albeit under the same corporate umbrella, legal risk to the whole is mitigated.

For instance, Google/Alphabet can roll their European presence into Google.eu and be fully compliant with European data retention, right to be forgotten laws and tax laws, while Google.com could be solely US based and outside of EU jurisdiction.

Also, this is really not new. Corporates have been playing this shell game for years, hiding various aspects in companies who's only phyical esixtance is a single shared mailbox in some non-descript office building (many of them in places like Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Ireland). The difference here is Google/Alphabet are being open about splitting their company.

Alphabet...ically

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Alphabet comes before Apple in a list sorted alphabetically.

Re:Alphabet...ically

[Anonymous Coward]

But not in a list sorted Applebetically!

Re:It's August now, right?

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

August fool!

Re:Loooong overdue

[thisisauniqueid]

s/conglomerate/chaebol/g

Re:It's August now, right?

[NotInHere]

My first thought, too.

Re:Moving their eggs out of the same (legal) baske

[spire3661]

This is pretty much it.The Founders want to work on true Information Age stuff, but being all under one flag was just drawing too much heat from the political waves this kind of change causes.

Follow the money

[gti_guy]

How is Google's offshore money being allocated among the Alphabet members? If the EU gets a judgment against Google, then perhaps they won't be able to collect as must they could have yesterday.

Re:Follow the money

[oh_my_080980980]

Doesn't change the judgement. Alphabet would still face the sanction. You can't restructure your way out of a lawsuit.

Shark, jumped

[datavirtue]

I think the shark was just jumped.

Rewriting history

[93 Escort Wagon]

I love how, in the blog post, Larry specifically mentions four things that "seemed crazy at the time" that purportedly began at Google. Unfortunately two of them - YouTube and Google Maps - were actually created by others and eventually purchased by Google.

I can't wait for his future declarations regarding how people thought Google was crazy when they first created Waze!

Re:Rewriting history

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not? Google invented web search.

Re:Rewriting history

[im_thatoneguy]

It worked for him at Apple. Not so much outside of Apple. Apparently Pancreatic cancer is immune to reality distorting assertions.

Re:Rewriting history

[cheesybagel]

I think Google Maps started at Google. But they integrated other functionality later.

You are correct that YouTube was purchased.

Is "Alphabet" going to be trademarked?

[misnohmer]

I foresee a wave of notices hitting kindergartens soon...

Re:Is "Alphabet" going to be trademarked?

[Anonymous Coward]

...about the new Google alphabet! A is for Analytics, B is for Beta, C is for Chrome, D is for Doubleclick, ...

Come to think of it, this might outdo the educational initiatives from Microsoft and Bill Gates combined. Well played, Goog--Alphab--whatever.

NO CARRIER

Re:Is "Alphabet" going to be trademarked?

[electrosoccertux]

I foresee a wave of notices hitting kindergartens soon...

it will, but they've been kind enough to license the patents for educational use.

ABC Television, a Disney company

[tepples]

Alphabet would first have to get past The Walt Disney Company, whose ABC television network is commonly known in the business as the "Alphabet Network".

Re:google xyz

[viperidaenz]

Run by Larry "Baghead" Page

Activision

[tepples]

Yet "Activision Blizzard" is before Alphabet, and Activision was named to be before Atari. The race to the front of the phone book continued with three other companies started by Activision alumni: Accolade (Populous; HardBall), Acclaim (home versions of Smash TV, Mortal Kombat, and NBA Jam, as well as numerous movie and TV licenses), and Absolute (A Boy and His Blob; Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors).

Just Alphabet?

[wwalker]

Just Alphabet?!
Did they want to be on the first page in the phonebook? AAAlphabet would've been even better.
Is Gmail going to be renamed Amail?
Someone else owns alphabet.com and they didn't buy it prior to the announcement?!

I mis-read that

[JustOK]

Must be a typo, they're already known as Google Alwaysbeta

Re:I mis-read that

[ArsonSmith]

I'm going to 'bet' they'll move to always 'alpha'

ok it's a bit of a stretch for a joke.

This might hinder their innovation

[Headw1nd]

On the downside, this will make shuffling people and resources around between their different projects much more difficult, and likewise will make it harder for ideas to get heard that don't pertain to the current business division.

Re:This might hinder their innovation

[thinkwaitfast]

Do shuffled people really move that far and often from their core competency. Eg, moving from server farm optimization to driverless car navigation.

Re:Loooong overdue

[PCM2]

You can't have one company that large and remain flexible and innovative

I guess that explains what's happened to Apple?

Re:Email from Google

[Anonymous Coward]

One needs to be pretty isolated not to have any contacts that are @gmail.com.

That isn't email Google, and definitely isn't alphabet.xyz. Google, the company, is a notorious blackhole, they have a thousand contact forms and corporate emails but they don't reply to jack shit.

Courts

[Etherwalk]

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.

Re:Courts

[Dahamma]

Except that the "Google" division - which contains search, apps, Android, and ads - is still nearly all of their revenue.

Based on the divisions they spun off - Life Sciences, Calico (longevity project), Google X, Google Ventures - it seems like it's more of an effort to separate out the big profit center from the longer term projects that aren't directly generating revenue (ie. short term shareholder value).

It's going to let them invest in these really interesting long term projects without shareholders bitching about the risk. Which is awesome, and really does show they are running the company differently than the usual tech behemoths. Just think if HP, IBM, Microsoft, etc had done this *properly* at their peaks (vs spinning off valuable businesses as entirely separate companies like HP did, or repeatedly shuffling the deck chairs like Microsoft keeps dong) - they might still be relevant.

Re:Courts

[cheesybagel]

It might grow into a Generic Electric conglomerate model though. Conglomerates seldom end well as it's easy to lose corporate focus.

Re:Courts

[cheesybagel]

I meant General Electric. Gah.

Re:Courts

[gl4ss]

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.

read the posting, then if you don't understand it try to make a diagram on a paper or something about the ownership/stock relations before and after this rebranding.

no difference at all!. all you have is sundar as ceo of some part of it, while being in the organizational chart directly under larry and sergei! the friggin BOARD doesn't change, though presumably now they're the board of google alphabet! does larry bother to talk about that even? HECK NO! the only time board is mentioned is that "they" think that sundar is ripe for being CEO.

it doesn't protect them from lawsuits, regulation or anything at all. all it helps for them it to show on their quarterly report in bigger numbers how much their money making operations made and try to hush hush how much their non-making operations are making.

the rebranding is of so little actual consequence to stock owners that they did the announcement in a blog posting for fucks sake. the blog posting doesn't even bother to outline if youtube and android are still under Sundar or not! IT MATTERS SO LITTLE!

they just had to find an use for the "cool" address of abc.xyz, find a way to have both larry and sundar be CEO's and that's pretty much the whole thing.

it's really rather stupid. but the how pointless it is, is underlined that if this had some stock implications then it would have been announced differently(never mind it being posted after trading was stopped).

everything is still owned by the same people and same stock and trying to change that without some kind of official announcing would pretty much count as fraud - probably even if they announced it. so from perspective of any outsider, you just have a title changed and a slight rebranding done.

Re:Courts

[gl4ss]

why would it make shareholders bitch less when the same shareholders own this now as well?

I know, I know, that's what larry is hoping for, but nothing is changing in regards to that - its still all stockholders money.

all I see so far is that it shows how gullible google fanboys are that they think just rebranding them into a yet another branded X labs would actually change _anything_ about where the bills are paid from.

the traded stock stays 100% the same as before - who pays for what doesn't change one bit - that's how they could get away by announcing it in a blog posting.

from stockholders view the calico, life sciences etc are in same boat today as they were before - nothing really changed.

Re:Courts

[Anonymous Coward]

It's going to let them invest in these really interesting long term projects without shareholders bitching about the risk.

So, Alphabet will bet on alpha and beta software.

Re:Courts

[Dahamma]

Same reason Warren Buffet manages to convince his shareholders to STFU. The more separate companies the harder it becomes to target one bad decision.

Of course that means Google really needs to add "Google Term Life Insurance" subsitiatry. That way they can get the insurance float (like BRK.A) to actually fund their immortality projects so their life insurance never needs to pay off!

Re:Courts

[Dahamma]

Either way - are you using GE as an example of not "ending well"?!?

I'm pretty sure #8 in the Fortune 500 does not indicate a loss of focus. Google would kill to be #8, they are currently at #40.

Re:Courts

[cheesybagel]

GE is the best that could happen to them. But what might actually could happen is what happened to ITT.

A promotion for Sundar Pichai, not much else

[dzoey]

Before the announcement, Google was composed of many divisions (e.g. YoutTube, Calico etc.) each reporting to a person that reported to the Google CEO, except for Google itself. After the announcement, Alphabet is composed of many companies (Google, YouTube, Calico, etc) each with a CEO that reports to the Alphabet CEO who used to be the Google CEO. It creates a position at the top for a Google CEO that will be filled by Sundar Pichai, who clearly deserves the recognition. But, it doesn't look like much else changes. It's the same people doing the same work.

The rumor on the Google blog is that Twitter was looking to offer Sundar Pichai a CEO position, so this move was made to keep him.

Perhaps there are some additional legal protections gained by doing this reorg as well.

Re:A promotion for Sundar Pichai, not much else

[oh_my_080980980]

They become like GE a conglomeration. Fairly standard with corporations with diverse interests.

Re:Figures. Alphabet...

[electrosoccertux]

Google's shit never quite makes it through beta.

Googah: makin things beta.

whois alphabet.com

[smoothnorman]

i guess someone in Munich is about to get rich(er)... maybe (geworden sein ab). "whois alphabet.com":
Registrant Name: Domain Manager
Registrant Organization: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
Registrant Street: Petuelring 130, Dept. AJ-35
Registrant City: Munich
Registrant Postal Code: 80788
Registrant Country: DE

Re:whois alphabet.com

[Otis_INF]

"Bayerische Motoren Werke AG" is the official name of BMW, you know, of the cars and the bikes. I don't think a single person gets richer if Alphabet buys it ;)

Re:whois alphabet.com

[Sez Zero]

No, their new website is https://abc.xyz/

Obviously those internet-type guys get the domain before announcing the product.

For reasons we are not yet aware of..

[bigsexyjoe]

It's popular to explain why they created an umbrella company and offer your theories. But I am convinced of this: the general public is not aware of the reason at this time.

I'll offer a very general reason they would do this, I don't have the details: doing this creates a financial/legal advantages for Larry Page and Sergey Brin. What kind of advantage? Why does it create the advantage? I don't know. But why do business people do anything?

I could be wrong, but I don't think it is for the "soft" reasons that people are positing now, i.e. it explains the structure better, it highlights that Google is not a "conventional company". This is a big change, and probably an expensive and time-consuming one. And making everyone aware of this "Alphabet" brand is a big pain in the ass.

I think the reasons they did this are very specific and concrete, but we just don't know what those reasons are at this point.

Re:For reasons we are not yet aware of..

[jittles]

It's popular to explain why they created an umbrella company and offer your theories. But I am convinced of this: the general public is not aware of the reason at this time.

I'll offer a very general reason they would do this, I don't have the details: doing this creates a financial/legal advantages for Larry Page and Sergey Brin. What kind of advantage? Why does it create the advantage? I don't know. But why do business people do anything?

I could be wrong, but I don't think it is for the "soft" reasons that people are positing now, i.e. it explains the structure better, it highlights that Google is not a "conventional company". This is a big change, and probably an expensive and time-consuming one. And making everyone aware of this "Alphabet" brand is a big pain in the ass.

I think the reasons they did this are very specific and concrete, but we just don't know what those reasons are at this point.

There are a lot of reasons as to why this may be happening. It's very possible that it has to do with the fact that Google has had antitrust allegations levied against it in the EU (they were formally filed in April of this year). With separate subsidiaries it may make it easier to shield themselves from certain allegations in that anti-trust case, for instance. I suspect that we'll know within 12-18 months whether it was done for this reason. In any event, I think you are right that it was done for monetary reasons.

Re:For reasons we are not yet aware of..

[bigsexyjoe]

Those sound like very good theories, better than the ones I've been reading. But again, I don't think the general public is yet aware of what the actual reason is.

Re:For reasons we are not yet aware of..

[oh_my_080980980]

Really? Google is a large corporation with diverse interests. Google has become a conglomeration, like GE. Therefore restructuring their corporate structure allows for a better accounting and managing of it's different business divisions. Not really hard to understand.

Re:When you look up gullible in the dictionary...

[im_thatoneguy]

If NPR's Marketplace hadn't covered it this evening I wouldn't have believed it for a second.

Re:It's August now, right?

[KGIII]

I expect it to be an Onion article, honestly. I am still shaking my head. I am not sure what this will do to the markets tomorrow but, well, I am no longer heavily invested in Google. I will be just fine. If they spike by noon I will just sell them and put the funds into Tesla.

It had to happen, you know

[msobkow]

Sooner or later, someone had to try to trademark or copyright the alphabet. :P

Android too

[Otis_INF]

Android was purchased as well, by Android Inc., which was purchased in 2005

Re:Alphabets new productline

[msobkow]

You mean "Alphabet SOAP". :D

Can't beat Aardvark

[aNonnyMouseCowered]

In other news another top Fortune 500 company, based in the caffeine capital of the world, decides to rename itself after a nocturnal African animal that looks like a cross between an anteater and a pig.

Re:A is for Apps

[deviated_prevert]

Modern companies organize using Apps. Also Google is for Cows, Cows say Moo, and Slashdot is ran by the Geeks and Nerds Association of America.

Enough already you have milked that stupid cow of yours dry. I suggest you try self flagellation with a milking machine on a specific part of your anatomy, in your case it might be more productive than constantly slagging the cows. STOP giving the dairy farmers and Bessy a bad name you insensitive clod!

Coming soon

[ThatsNotPudding]

Alphabet+

Probably just an excuse to kill off more projects

[QuietLagoon]

Google hasn't left enough users hanging due to project terminations, so they are now using creative ways to shutdown even more projects.

Yes you can

[Cro Magnon]

My roadside service comes before Aardvark. AAA FTW!

Re:Yes you can

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

What about the Albany Alcoholic Anonymous Association?

Re:Change of slogan?

[terjeber]

Dos this mean that the new company is not beholden to the old slogan: "Don't be evil"?

Was the old one?

Re:WRONG!

[oh_my_080980980]

You douche bag, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....

Larry Page (CEO)

Sergey Brin (President)

Eric Schmidt (Chairman)

Ruth Porat (CFO)

Re:Its a Google Alphabet

[oh_my_080980980]

*Shhh* people around here don't read SEC filings. It gets in the way of their head in their asses pontifications...

I wish MS/GOOG doesn't fall in this category

[NewYork]

Google "Companies ruined or almost ruined by Indians";

Adaptec - Indian CEO Subramanian Sundaresh fired.
AIG (signed outsourcing deal in 2007 in Europe with Accenture Indian frauds, collapsed in 2009)
AirBus (Qantas plane plunged 650 feet injuring passengers when its computer system written by India disengaged the auto-pilot).
Apple - R&D CLOSED in India in 2006.
Apple - Foreign guest worker "Helen" Hung Ma caused the disastrous MobileMe product rollout.
Australia's National Australia Bank (Outsourced jobs to India in 2007, nationwide ATM and account failure in late 2010).
Bell Labs (Arun Netravalli took over, closed, turned into a shopping mall)
Boeing Dreamliner ES software (written by HCL, banned by FAA)
Bristol-Myers-Squibb (Trade Secrets and documents stolen in U.S. by Indian national guest worker)
Caymas - Startup run by Indian CEO, French director of dev, Chinese tech lead. Closed after 5 years of sucking VC out of America.
ComAir crew system run by 100% Indian IT workers caused the 12/25/05 U.S. airport shutdown when they used a short int instead of a long int
Dell - call center (closed in India because Premji's conmen don't even know how to use telephones, let alone computers)
Delta call centers (closed in India because Premji's conmen don't even know how to use telephones, let alone computers)
Fannie Mae- Hired large numbers of Indians, had to be bailed out. Indian logic bomb creator found guilty.
GM - Was booming in 2006, signed $300 million outsourcing deal with Wipro that same year, went bankrupt 3 years later
HSBC ATMs (software taken over by Indians, failed in 2006)
Intel Whitefield processor project (cancelled, Indian staff canned)
Lehman (Spectramind software bought by Wipro, ruined, trashed by Indian programmers)
Microsoft - Employs over 35,000 H-1Bs. Stock used to be $100. Today it's lucky to be over $25. Not to mention that Vista thing.
Microsoft - Lian Yang, Microsoft-Contracted Engineer, Arrested in Smuggling Plot After Another FBI Sting in Portland in 2010
MIT Media Lab Asia (canceled)
PeopleSoft (Taken over by Indians in 2000, collapsed).
Qantas - See AirBus above
Quark (Alukah Kamar CEO, fired, lost 60% of its customers to Adobe because Indian-written QuarkExpress 6 was a failure)
Rolls Royce (Sent aircraft engine work to India in 2006, engines delayed for Boeing 787, and failed on at least 2 Quantas planes in 2010, cost Rolls $500m).
Skype ( Yarlagadda fired)
State of Indiana $867 billion FAILED IBM project, IBM being sued
State of Texas failed IBM project.
Sun Micro (Taken over by Indian and Chinese workers in 2001, collapsed, has to be sold off to Oracle).
United - call center (closed in India because Premji's conmen don't even know how to use telephones, let alone computers)
Virgin Atlantic (software written in India caused cloud IT failure)
World Bank (Indian fraudsters BANNED for 3 years because they stole data).

Satya/Sunder are NOT Entrepreneurs.

[NewYork]

Why Microsoft/Google can't elevate an Entrepreneur as CEO?

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw

Three... Two... One...

[DarthVain]

and Alphabet creates an application/service called "Soup"...

The cynic in me likes to think they are really re-branding the company to be more meaningful...

In that most of their stuff is in "Alpha" too long and taking "bets" on crazy technology!

Susan?

[tverbeek]

Who is "Susan"?
https://abc.xyz/

Cars

[Etherwalk]

It's going to let them invest in these really interesting long term projects without shareholders bitching about the risk.

Yes. It's all about segmenting the business to limit risk. Self-driving cars are the big one that come to mind as they would be insane if they didn't put it in its own risk-bubble, because they don't know the economics yet of whether juries will always blame self-driving cars, for example.

Re:Cars

[Dahamma]

That's true, but it's not really about lawsuits, it's about investments. Direct shareholders don't like investments into things like longevity and virtual reality that may only pay off in 10, 50, 100 years. This way they can get people to focus on the giant Google ads cash cow and not the "we will record your brain to an AI or solve cell death" sci-fi projects.

Re:Its a Google Alphabet

[jan_jes]

*Shhh* people around here don't read SEC filings. It gets in the way of their head in their asses pontifications...

I know that but Google has included some more details in SEC filings. Tech people want to know these, so only i did this "Larry Page will become the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alphabet, Sergey Brin will become the President of Alphabet, Eric E. Schmidt will become the Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Ruth Porat will become the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Alphabet and David C. Drummond will become the Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of Alphabet. Concurrently upon completion of the Alphabet Merger, Sundar Pichai, will become the new CEO of Google Inc. Later this year, Google intends to implement a holding company reorganization (the “Alphabet Merger”), which will result in Alphabet owning all of the capital stock of Google."