It's long been difficult to catalogue everything that Google does, and apparently Google couldn't keep up with anymore either because the company has unveiled a somewhat bizarre restructuring effort that will see “Google” become a wholly-owned subsidiary of a new holding company called “Alphabet.”
Google directors will become Alphabet directors, Larry Page will be the holding company's CEO, and Page's deputy Sundar Pichai will now be CEO of Google. Alphabet will replace Google as the publicly traded entity, Google shares will become Alphabet shares, but the tickers will remain as is – or something. Here's Bloomberg trying to put it in perspective.
Google is adopting this structure in order to make clearer the difference between its main business and longer-term endeavors, as Page and Brin take on more strategic roles, while leaving operational management to trusted deputies.
Of course in today's market, all news is good news even if it's almost impossible to digest and evaluate, or maybe traders presume the move will be somehow “tax advantaged”, but whatever the case, the stock is soaring in AH trading.
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Here's the full statement from Google.. err.. Alphabet:
Google Announces Plans for New Operating Structure
August 10, 2015
G is for Google.
As Sergey and I wrote in the original founders letter 11 years ago, “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.” As part of that, we also said that you could expect us to make “smaller bets in areas that might seem very speculative or even strange when compared to our current businesses.” From the start, we've always strived to do more, and to do important and meaningful things with the resources we have.
We did a lot of things that seemed crazy at the time. Many of those crazy things now have over a billion users, like Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android. And we haven't stopped there. We are still trying to do things other people think are crazy but we are super excited about.