Google is in the midst of some far-reaching changes at the top order, what with both the company co-founders – Larry Page and Sergey Brin – calling it a day. Page has been serving as the CEO of Alphabet while Brin has stepped down as the President of Alphabet.
Page and Brin said it’s the right time for them to step down from active managerial roles given that both Alphabet and the Google are working effectively. This, they explained is part of their bigger strategy of keeping the management simple. And with the company running smoothly, they feel it’s the best time for them both to call it quits.
Among the other major change announced is that Sundar Pichai will henceforth take up the role of Alphabet CEO. Pichai has so far been working as the CEO of Google but will have a bigger role to play as the CEO of Alphabet. The other big change introduced is that the position of the president will henceforth be abolished.
The announcement also isn’t too big a surprise either considering that both Page and Brin have been maintaining a safe distance from the day-to-day operations of the company for some time already. However, they said they would have regular discussions with Sundar Pichai and will be keeping a tab on the company proceedings.
That’s not all as both Brin and Page will be retaining their slots at the board, besides also holding on to their shares of the company as well. Page has 5.8 percent of Alphabet shares while Brin holds 5.6 percent shares of the company. That enables both to have controlling voting rights, which means they still have the means to call the shots within the company. Pichai holds just about 0.1 percent of the company shares.
For Pichai, it’s also challenging times to steer Alphabet out of the change currently underway in the world order. Its ad revenue stream is showing signs of stagnations after years of growth, which means the Other Bets such as Waymo and Verily will have to deliver and fill the gap to ensure revenue growth remains intact.
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Google, or for that matter, Alphabet, has also been under increasing pressure from its employees and have even been forced to backtrack on some of its decisions after facing backlash from its employees. That includes assisting the Department of Defense which included the application of Google’s AI expertise to help identify potential targets from satellite or other aerial footage. Google was forced to pull out of the deal after it refused to renew its contract after it expired in March 2019.
