An exciting new chapter in the life of Google – the birth of Alphabet.
Google just launched Alphabet, a new company that will change Google’s structure. On Monday afternoon, Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet, made this announcement through a blog post. Page has teamed up with Sergey Brin, president of Alphabet. “I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey, as President,” said Page.
Alphabet Inc. will be replacing Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity. Google’s shares will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet. Google’s right will also transfer over to Alphabet. Thus far, this structural change has caused stock to rise above 6% in after hours trading. You could assume investors are very excited to see these positive results.
According to Page, Alphabet will most likely be a collection of companies, and Google will be under this umbrella structure. “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,” explains Page. “Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related.” Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet. Additionally, Google will continue to trade on Nasdaq as GOOGL and GOOG. Ultimately, Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence.
This new structure will give Alphabet the ability to keep focus on the extraordinary opportunities they have inside of Google. They plan to continue stretching boundaries within Google. “Alphabet will also include our X lab, which incubates new efforts like Wing, our drone delivery effort,” said Page. “Sergey and I are seriously in the business of starting new things.” Larry and Sergey are very excited about growing their investment arms, Ventures and Capital, as part of this new structure. “And hopefully… as a result of all this, improving the lives of as many people as we can.”
In 2016, Alphabet will begin building a Google data center in Jackson County. The whole point is that Alphabet companies are independent, creating their own unique brands.
“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!”