Google Inc has completed its restructuring plan, and has now become Alphabet Inc. The new structure, which was announced two months ago, will see various parts of what was once Google become individual companies – all owned by Alphabet.
Google itself will still be around, albeit in a much smaller capacity. The internet giant is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet, but will still handle the things that everyone knows is part of Google. Android, search, Gmail, Photos, Youtube, apps, and Maps are all still handled by the same company and team. The big difference here is that founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have handed the reins to Sundar Pichai, who has been appointed as CEO of Google.
Other companies now owned by Alphabet are Google Fiber, Calico and Life Sciences, Google Ventures and Google Capital, Nest, and Google X. It really looks like Brin and Page have decided to separate their side projects and unusual ideas from the core business at Google. This is particularly obvious as the Google subsidiary will still report its finances separately from that of Alphabet’s.
Alphabet has also replaced Google’s “don’t be evil” motto with something a little more specific. The new Code of Conduct requires all employees to “do the right thing”, and then proceeds to carefully explain what this actually means. While “do the right thing” isn’t quite as catchy as “don’t be evil” it is probably more relevant to how companies conduct business in the 21st century. Explaining what the right thing is would probably also help with all the ridicule that Google has been getting over the “don’t be evil” motto.
Overall, it looks like it will be business as usual over at Google; with Alphabet being the driving force behind the more interesting projects like self driving cars and modular smartphones. That being said, it looks like Brin and Page have failed to get Alphabet.com away from BMW; although the new domain name for the company is a whole lot more interesting.
