From search to wearables to self-driving cars to combatting aging, it is no secret that Google has their hands in a lot of pots! Typically a company the size of Google faces a challenge to stay as nimble as a tech leader needs to be. To help combat that and still allow the company to grow into new businesses, Larry Page made a surprise announcement last night that Google was restructuring. The new organization, which is reminiscent of Berkshire Hathaway, will create a new holding company, named Alphabet. Within Alphabet will be companies such as Google (which will oversee internet products such as search, maps, YouTube and Gmail), Nest, Calico, and Google X (which is pioneering commercial drones and self-driving vehicles). Wearables such as Google Glass will be placed inside Google X while Android and Android Wear stay part of Google (at least for the time being). Larry Page and Sergey Brin will head up Alphabet and Sundar Pichai (who had been SVP of products) will become CEO of Google.
The new structure is designed to allow the sub-companies to behave more like a startup. As tech companies sprawl to become more present in more parts of our life, their product offerings have also multiplied across business spaces. Companies such as Apple, Facebook, and Amazon (which provides everything from shopping to web services to consumer electronics) are facing similar sprawl issues to Google. It will be interesting to see if any other tech giants follow Google’s path and reorganize their company. The change is expected to take place later this year.
