Google to adopt new holding structure
Google Inc. is adopting a new structure that makes it more of a holding company, giving the main Web businesses more independence while providing more transparency into executives’ ambitious investments and spending on research.
Alphabet Inc. will be the name of what will effectively be a new holding company. Google Inc. will be part of that and include YouTube, Android mobile software and other Web- based products. Alphabet will also include Calico, Google Ventures, Google Capital, Google X and other subsidiaries, the Web company said in a blog post Monday.
The new structure will give greater clarity into how Google invests in various ventures, including driverless cars, high- speed Internet service and health- related technologies. That helped to boost shares by as much as 5.8 per cent in extended trading.
“There’s been a lot of speculation about how much money they put into these other ventures,” said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial. “That will come to an end. This also gives them the structure to add in another business line if they were to acquire something. The mechanism is in place.”
Larry Page, co- founder and current chief executive, will hold that title at Alphabet, while co- founder Sergey Brin will be president. Ruth Porat will remain chief financial officer of the holding company. Sundar Pichai, Page’s deputy, will be promoted to become CEO of Google Inc., which generates the bulk of the company’s $ 60 billion US in annual revenue. The goal isn’t to make Alphabet a consumer brand, Page said.
“We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental changes,” Page wrote in the post. “Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable.”
Shares of Google rose to $ 701.74 US in extended trading. The stock is up 25 per cent this year, with much of the gains coming after the company reported quarterly results last month.
The new structure will be introduced in phases in the coming months. Alphabet will report its results under this new structure starting with the fourth- quarter earnings report, which is usually released in January. With this move, investors will get more details on how the businesses are operating, a long- standing request from Wall Street.