Google is one of the most recognizable company names in the world, but today the tech giant has renamed itself. Going forward, Google will be a tech conglomerate called “Alphabet,” while the Internet services division will retain the name “Google.”
The move was announced today on Google’s official blog by CEO Larry Page, who explained that he and co-founder Sergey Brin created the umbrella company to allow for more management flexibility. The move essentially breaks the current form of Google up into several smaller companies and unites them all under Alphabet. This means that divisions of the corporation like Calico, its life-extension research group, will operate autonomously and led by independent CEOs. Google, on the other hand, has been reduced in scope to include only Internet services like its search engine, its Chrome Internet browser, and its Android mobile operating system.
Alphabet’s CEO will be Page, and its president will be Brin. Their main responsibilities will be to allocate capital to each company in Alphabet, as well as to hire and advise the CEOs of the different branches. In addition, Page announced that Sundar Pichai, who was previously Product Chief at Google, will be CEO of the Google branch.
In his statement, Page stated strongly that the point of Alphabet is to facilitate production of a diverse range of different products, and that it’s not meant to unify the divisions under one brand with one corporate vision. He explained, “I should add that 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.”
Google has been working on a lot of different projects outside its most popular products. It is currently developing a self-driving car, a system of weather balloons and unmanned aircraft to provide Internet to the globe, a modular phone, an artificial neural network, and many other products. According to Page, the creation of Alphabet gives these divisions more autonomy.
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