Technoglitch
Core Member
Google started as a company that built a search engine, but over time it's become a lot more than that. The Mountain View, California, company has created or acquired a number of other hugely popular internet products, including YouTube, Android, and Gmail. More recently, the company has begun pouring resources into projects like self-driving cars, anti-aging technology, and balloon-powered internet access.
Page and Brin believe that these projects have become too diverse and sprawling for a single operating company to manage all of them effectively. Different projects require different types of leaders, different company cultures, and different types of resources. So they're creating Alphabet as a holding company that will oversee all of these different ventures while allowing each to have more independence.
How will Alphabet be structured?
From a shareholder perspective, Alphabet is just the new name for the company that used to be called Google. Google shares will become Alphabet shares, and existing Google shareholders will continue to hold a stake in all of the Alphabet companies.
Full details of Alphabet's structure haven't been released yet, but Page did mention several ventures that will be pulled out of Google and may become independent ventures under the Alphabet umbrella:
In the short run, it won't affect you at all. Most of the popular Google products you probably use every day will stay under the Google umbrella and will continue to operate the way they always have.
If the launch of Alphabet affects users, it will be because some of those more ambitious projects pay off. For example, the Calico project hopes to extend human lifespans — that's probably not going to happen in the next year or even the next decade. Indeed, as I think Page himself would acknowledge, most of Google's ambitious bets are unlikely to pay off at all. But if a few of them do work out, it could have huge benefits.
Why Google is renaming itself "Alphabet" - Vox
Page and Brin believe that these projects have become too diverse and sprawling for a single operating company to manage all of them effectively. Different projects require different types of leaders, different company cultures, and different types of resources. So they're creating Alphabet as a holding company that will oversee all of these different ventures while allowing each to have more independence.
Official Google Blog: G is for Google
How will Alphabet be structured?
From a shareholder perspective, Alphabet is just the new name for the company that used to be called Google. Google shares will become Alphabet shares, and existing Google shareholders will continue to hold a stake in all of the Alphabet companies.
Full details of Alphabet's structure haven't been released yet, but Page did mention several ventures that will be pulled out of Google and may become independent ventures under the Alphabet umbrella:
- Google's life sciences research into things like glucose-sensing contact lenses
- Calico, Google's human longevity project
- Google's X Lab, which Page says "incubates new efforts like Wing, our drone delivery effort"
- Google's investment arms, Ventures and Capital
In the short run, it won't affect you at all. Most of the popular Google products you probably use every day will stay under the Google umbrella and will continue to operate the way they always have.
If the launch of Alphabet affects users, it will be because some of those more ambitious projects pay off. For example, the Calico project hopes to extend human lifespans — that's probably not going to happen in the next year or even the next decade. Indeed, as I think Page himself would acknowledge, most of Google's ambitious bets are unlikely to pay off at all. But if a few of them do work out, it could have huge benefits.
Why Google is renaming itself "Alphabet" - Vox
