Alphabet wraps up reorganization

New company called XXVI separates Google from new independent businesses like Waymo, Verily.

Alphabet is forming a new holding company designed to finalize its evolution from Google, the web search giant, into a corporate parent with distinct arms in far-flung fields like health care and self-driving cars.

The new entity, called XXVI Holdings, will own the equity of each Alphabet company, including Google. The new structure legally separates Google from other units such as Waymo, its self-driving car business, and Verily, a medical device and health data firm.

Google co-founder Larry Page announced Alphabet two years ago to foster new businesses that operate independently from Google. Technically, however, those units, called the “Other Bets,” were still subsidiaries of Google. The new structure, unveiled Friday, enables Other Bets to become subsidiaries of Alphabet on the same legal footing as Google.

“We’re updating our corporate structure to implement the changes we announced with the creation of Alphabet in 2015,” said Gina Weakley Johnson, an Alphabet spokeswoman. She called the process a legal formality that won’t affect ultimate shareholder control, operations, management or personnel at the 75,606-person company.

Google is also changing from a corporation to a limited liability company, or LLC. This won’t alter the way the business pays taxes, Johnson said. The switch is partly related to Google’s transformation from a listed public company into a business owned by a holding company.

Corporations are often formed