Google restructures under new parent company Alphabet

Google on Monday announced a major restructuring of its company, which will split off some of its main Internet businesses from its more investment-based and speculative projects. 

It announced the formation of a new parent company called Alphabet, which will include Google’s main business and some of its other projects. Larry Page will become the chief executive of Alphabet, Sergey Brin will be president and Eric Schmidt will be executive chairman.

{mosads}”What is Alphabet?” Page asked in a blog post. “Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google. This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead.

“In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed,” he added.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Google will be slimmed down to include search, ads, maps, YouTube and Android. Sundar Pichai, who is currently vice president of products, will be Google’s new chief executive. 

Other investment projects, such as Google Ventures and its incubator, Google X, will be managed separately. That includes Google Fiber, which has brought fiber-optic Internet service to a handful of U.S. cities, and Calico, a company focused on longevity. 

The main Google business will eventually become a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet. All of Google’s stockholders will become Alphabet stock holders. Stock will continue to be traded under the “GOOG” and “GOOGL” Symbols. 

Page said the move would allow the company to take a longer term view, to invest more and to improve financial transparency. 

Google, with its $444 billion market cap, has its fingers in many policy areas in Washington and is consistently one of the top 10 companies in terms of lobbying spending. It spent nearly $17 million in 2014. It has spent $9.7 million so far this year.

Its lobbying portfolio is a good indicator of its expanding business ventures. It includes dozens of issues such as drone regulation, driverless cars, trade, spectrum, net neutrality, tax reform, education, immigration, cybersecurity, wind power, privacy and surveillance, patent reform and online advertising.