In a surprising move, Google co-founder and former CEO Larry Page announced on Monday that the operations of the search engine giant has been restructured and is now a subsidiary of an even bigger company dubbed as Alphabet.
The massive reorganization involves breaking up the various initiatives that were formerly under Google into several independent subsidiaries. All of these, including Google, will be supervised by the parent company Alphabet, The Wired reported.
As for the executives of the organization, Page has been named as the CEO of Alphabet while Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, is its president, according to Bloomberg.
Sundar Pichai, the former head of Google's Android and Chrome departments, is now officially the CEO of the search engine company. Pichai took over Page's responsibilities in Google in October last year after the latter stepped down from his position.
As explained by Page through a press release, the reorganization will allow heads of Alphabet, Google and other subsidiaries to focus on their own respective operations.
During the past years, Google appeared to have been sidetracked from its core goal of providing online information to users after acquiring different start-up firms.
These include Calico, a research and development company that works on anti-ageing drugs and technology, and Nest Labs, a manufacturer or programmable home safety and security systems.
Under the new structure, Calico and Nest Labs will operate as independent firms just like Google. Joining them are Google Ventures, Google Capital and Google X.
Business Insider reported that YouTube and Android, which are still under Google, could also serve as independent firms in the future.
As the holding company, Alphabet will then offer support to these firms if needed and allocate capital funds to support each company's operations.
"Alphabet is about businesses prospering though strong leaders and independence," Page wrote in the press release. "We will rigorously handle capital allocation and work to make sure each business is executing well."
"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," he continued.
