Alphabet, the company formerly known as Google, officially began trading today. Google will become a business unit running under the Alphabet umbrella and will focus on core Internet-related businesses, including search, YouTube and Android.
The company announced the official change on its investor relations page.
Google announced in August that it was creating a parent company and that Google would become one of its wholly owned subsidiaries.
Alphabet is set to replace Google as the publicly traded entity and shares of Google will be the same number of shares of Alphabet. The company will still trade under the ticker symbol GOOG.
Google won’t be the only subsidiary under the Alphabet umbrella.
Google X, the company’s secretive research arm that came up with the autonomous car, will become its own business, as will Capital and Ventures, which will concentrate on funding startups.
Before the reorganisation, everything the company was working on – search, Android, Chrome, Google Glass, robotics, driverless cars, drones and even smart contact lenses fell under the Google corporate umbrella. With this move, Google will shed all of its research projects, which aren’t money makers, and will concentrate on its Internet-based businesses, like search, which is a huge money maker.
Similarly, the company, which has become known for its moon shots or outrageous-sounding research, should be able to put even more muscle behind new projects.
Google’s research projects, like smart contact lenses that can read blood sugar levels for diabetics, will have its own executives overseeing the work.
With less attention split between money makers and big dreams, Alphabet is expected to be able to do a better job at both.
IDG News Service
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