Practically out of nowhere, Google yesterday announced that it was restructuring the entire company and renaming itself Alphabet. As part of the transformation, Google’s varying divisions will be split up into wholly owned subsidiaries under the Alphabet umbrella.
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Fleshing out what Alphabet’s corporate structure will look like once the transformation is complete, Danny Sullivan over at Marketing Land put together a handy guide breaking down which parts of Google will be spun out as new subsidiaries.
Of course, the biggest subsidiary will be called Google and will be led by newly minted CEO Sundar Pichai. The divisions underneath his control will include search, advertising, mapping, applications, YouTube, and of course Android.
As for other Alphabet subsidiaries, Sullivan took a look at Google’s SEC filing and came up with the following list.
- Calico (the folks who want you to live forever)
- Fiber (high-speed internet)
- Google (Search, Maps, YouTube, Android, Ads, Apps)
- Google Ventures (venture capital business)
- Google Capital (investment fund)
- Google X (auto-driving cars, Google Glass, internet by balloon, moonshots)
- Life Sciences (the glucose-sensing contact lens people)
- Nest (smoke alarms, home cameras, thermostats & connected home devices)
When viewed all together, it’s certainly remarkable how many varying and ambitious endeavors Google is currently involved in. All told, there will be 8 distinct subsidiaries with their own executive teams underneath the Alphabet parent company. Google co-founder Sergey Brin will remain in charge of Google X while famed iPod inventor Tony Fadell will remain in charge of Nest, which will presumably retain control over Google Glass development.
Speaking of Alphabet, its executive team will consist of Larry Page as CEO, Sergey Brin as President, Eric Schmidt as Executive Chairman, Ruth Porat as CFO, and David Drummond as Chief Legal Officer.
As for when the big corporate transformation will take place, well that hasn’t yet been determined. The company’s SEC filing, though, notes that it will occur sometime later this year.
As a helpful visual reference, CNN Money put together the following chart that’s worth highlighting.
