Google to be part of new holding company, ‘Alphabet’

Google has announced that it is restructuring, creating a new company called Alphabet that will hold Google and other companies.

Former Google founders and CEO Larry Page and Sergey Brin are now in charge of Alphabet, and that leaves Google in need of a CEO.

Don’t worry, we’re still getting used to the name too! Sundar Pichai is taking over as CEO of Google.

Google reported more than $14 billion in profit on $66 billion in sales last year, most of it from lucrative Internet advertising, while other ventures have required large investments without showing immediate returns.

“Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together”, said Page in a blog post announcing the move.

Pichai was part of the team that launched the Chrome browser in 2008 and, prior to that, worked on various search products, including Google Toolbar, Desktop Search, Gadgets, and Google Gears and Gadgets, according to Business Insider magazine. “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”.

Page, who identified himself in the letter as the CEO of Alphabet, told investors the reorganization will make Google’s overall business “cleaner and more accountable” as unrelated divisions find greater independence.

The goal it seems it to run more nimbly as a collection of smaller companies rather than one behemoth of only loosely related things. Page has suggested previously that he is following the model of financier and businessman Warren Buffett.

Alphabet will also 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”, Page wrote, with Google becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet. Berkshire Hathaway is a collection of companies, including Geico insurance and See’s sweets.

Alphabet will continue to trade under the GOOGL and GOOG ticker symbols when the change kicks in later this year.

Google may be best known for its ubiquitous search engine, but it has long been associated with seemingly whimsical ventures into areas as diverse as self-driving cars, drones and human aging.

Google stock jumped about 5 percent in after-hours trading.

This story corrects the age of Sundar Pichai, who is 43 not 42.