Sundar Pichai Replacing Larry Page As CEO of Alphabet
In a blog post by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two Google co-founders outlined major changes to the structure of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Page previously served as CEO of Google before the search firm reorganized to create its own parent company Alphabet. With the formation of the new company, Page became Alphabet’s CEO, Brin became president and Sundar Pichai took over at Google. With today’s announcement, Pichai will be taking over as CEO of both companies, with the position of president being eliminated.
“However, since we wrote our first founders’ letter, the company has evolved and matured,” wrote Page and Brin. “Within Google, there are all the popular consumer services that followed Search, such as Maps, Photos, and YouTube; a global ecosystem of devices powered by our Android and Chrome platforms, including our own Made by Google devices; Google Cloud, including GCP and G Suite; and of course a base of fundamental technologies around machine learning, cloud computing, and software engineering. It’s an honor that billions of people have chosen to make these products central to their lives—this is a trust and responsibility that Google will always work to live up to.
The two then built on an illustration they have used in previous founders’ letters, likening the company to a person.
“Today, in 2019, if the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost. While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents—offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!
“With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it’s the natural time to simplify our management structure. We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet’s investment in our portfolio of Other Bets. We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we’re passionate about!”
