Google, the company that owns YouTube, Android and Chrome, is reorganizing.
Instead of the massive super-company called Google, it will be a massive super-company called Alphabet, with Google still being its largest subsidiary. According to a blog post by Google CEO Larry Page, who will now be the CEO of Alphabet, this restructuring allows the new conglomerate of companies to be more independent and better managed. Sergey Brin, the current CEO of Google, will become the CEO of Alphabet, while Sundar Pichai, the current head of Google's Android and Chrome divisions, will be the next CEO of Google.
Google will be slimmed down, ostensibly to web services, while other pursuits like Calico(Google's war on aging) and Life Sciences (developing the glucose-sensing contact lens) are split into separate entities. Alphabet will also include Google's Wing drone delivery attempt and its X lab, as well as its Venture and Capital investment companies. There was no mention of the autonomous car, but it seems unlikely such a publicized pursuit would be cut before launch. (Also, if you click the period after mention of the self-driving car on Page's blog post, you're taken to a fake Hooli.xyz site, featuring the Google-esque company from HBO's Silicon Valley.)
The move seems to have been coming for a while. Google registered abc.xyz, Alphabet's new domain, in March 2014, according to Yoni Appelbaum, editor at The Atlantic.
“From the start, we've always strived to do more, and to do important and meaningful things with the resources we have,” Page wrote. He then talks about being crazy. But only time will tell on this one.