Google’s CEO and co-founder Larry Page has now stepped down as CEO and taking charge will be the Indian Born Sunder Pichai. The announcement was made via a blog post on Monday in which Page said they wanted a ‘slimmed down’ version of Google, confirming that Pichai who has been with the company for the past 11 years will now be the top man. While Google from now on will be a subsidiary to a large parent holding company called Alphabet, to be headed by Larry Page and co-founder Sergey Brin.
With this radical restructuring of the company, Page and Brin will manage Google along with affiliated companies such as Calcico and Wing. While Pichai will solely oversee operations at Google and associated services like Search, Ads, Maps, Play Store, YouTube, and Android.
Pichai, hailing from Southern India moved to the US in 1993 to pursue his studies acquiring a master’s degree from Stanford after which he got an MBA degree from Wharton School of Business. He has been with Google since 2004, apparently the same year when the company launched its Gmail service. Google’s Chrome browser was initiated under his supervision while he was also the driving force behind Google Apps. In 2013, he was put in charge of Android and the success of these products under his leadership indeed justify his title as the new CEO of Google. Sundar was the ideal choice to lead Google, said Page.
The move highlights Page’s aspirations to go a step further towards the technology-driven innovation he and Brin have so long been committed to. By doing this, Page wants to streamline the management putting key executives in command of the subsidiary companies, so he and Brin can solely focus on making other underlying companies work as a unit. Page and Brin have always been striving to push the boundaries of technological innovation, and now it would allow them to increase their focus on other ambitious projects such as Google X or SideWalk Labs.
With Alphabet now overseeing other underlying companies, it implies Google Inc. will be replaced by Alphabet Inc. as the public traded entity. Hence, all Google shares will now be automatically converted and traded as shares of Alphabet. The announcement rose Alphabet’s share price by more than 4 percent, while Google’s market value stood at $444 billion just before the announcement.
