(Image source from: theverge.com)
Every person retires some day and that day has finally come around for founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who handed over the control and management of the parent company, Alphabet Inc. over to the current CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, stating that it’s time for them to finally take a step back and not be the nagging parents and just take care of everything from the sidelines.
The news was finally published on the public blog of Google and while the two of the co-founders are going to be part of the board and still remains employees of the company, they stated that they aren’t going to be part of every nitty gritty associated with the company’s trillion dollar business which they kickstarted while pursuing their degree from the Stanford University almost two decades back.
In the published blog, both Pad and Brin stated saying, “With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it’s the natural time to simplify our management structure. We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet.”
It further mentioned that Pichai will be the executive solely responsible for all the decisions and the investments that are done under both Google and Alphabet in other bets around. Both Page and Brin confirmed saying that they are consistently and completely invested in both the entities for long term and will be part of the board members and share holders and co-founders. They are also going to be in constant touch with Pichai to further discuss ideas for implementation into the business further.
All three of them have expressed their ideas and thoughts surrounding the integration of artificial intelligence into web searching to make the process even faster and efficient. Product leader Pichai has worked over the years to make such kind of similar technology a lot more accessible for the users around.
But, over the years, there have been disputes regarding online security, along with vehement protests from the employees across the world, even resigning when things didn’t work out as they were supposed to. Streamlining the management at both Google and Alphabet could be the last straw that helps around in facing these challenges to further churn in better profits for the company.
Kim Caughey Forrest, who is the chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners stated saying, “This signals a shift away from the more fringy efforts – like Project Loon – and more towards a companyfocused on technology that makes money.”
Alphabet, in today’s date, owns a number of companies under it, Waymo and Verily being some of the most common ones known around. The parent company emerged in 2015 as a part of the overall restructuring process of Google.
Page has big expectations from the other technological details involved with the company, wanting to focus on the newer businesses which are when he signed over the operations to Sundar Pichai. Brin, on the other hand, has worked as the company’s President, looking over the research projects and the stream of robotics.
But, over the years, Page and Brin have take a backseat with their appearances and been in the background which has also sparked bouts of controversies too. The same has predominantly questioned Page’s role as CEO in the company a number of times too.
With the new decision made and announced, Alphabet clarified saying that both Page and Brin are going to sign over the CEO and president rights over to Pichai. He is the one now responsible for managing both the companies and overlook all the operations and investments. The position for the President is not going to be filled at the moment, or in the future, seems a bit unclear at the moment.
Page has been suffering from a chronic health condition, affecting his voice but he is very clear on the fact that the same was not something that influenced this decision at all.
Following the announcement, the shares of Alphabet rose by 0.64% to $1,303 per share. Now with the new role being handed over to him, Pichai is now the operational CEO for not just Google but Alphabet as well. He has been associated with Google for over 15 years. He rose to prominence during the time that he was associated with the development of Google Chrome.
Pichai later worked under the development and engineering course under Google for a year following which he was assigned with the title of CEO. Currently, Page and Brin are active in some of the other ventures. Page recently funded a company that is researching on the development of flying cars. Brin has showcased his interest with cryptocurrency.
By Somapika Dutta
