I had to check my calendar on my desktop just to make absolutely certain it wasn't the 1st of April.
"Ultimately it remains to be seen what effects this will have on the Google that we’ve known for the past few years. However given that the management structure has remained relatively constant in this move I suspect that business will continue on as usual."
But the kicker is why? Potential spinoff in the future? This move potentially allows for much more clarity with respect to quarterly earnings, but corporations don't often do that. It's usually the opposite -- eg., Intel covering their catastrophic mobile failures.
Wouldn't they have demanded the same thing when such projects existed under Google tho? If anything it seems like a PR thing, every time they come up with some crazy project it won't flood the headlines with news of "what Google's up to next", it's all an Alphabet thing now.
Well, when it's all under a single umbrella the subdivisions can be obfuscated. To remain with the Intel example, their mobile losses were clear until that segment of the company fell under the consumer/PC division.
So Google will keep hibernating and getting worse under Sundar Pichai while the founders play with the new toys. Nothing new so far then. New segments getting their own leaders is good since Google seems unable to transition those projects into actual products. There are negatives here too , it's costlier, consistency becomes harder but at least this way there is hope that some of the new things will make it. Google has been lacking ideas, loosing credibility ,lacking any focus and becoming rather evil in the last few years. This won't change that so the future doesn't look much brighter with these changes.
This will basically become "The Company" from Prison Break. A giant conglomerate with a hand in just about everything. Essentially the Samsung of the West.
...or, alternatively, just a research-y company that makes headlines every once in a while for its far-out ideas, owns some patents, etc. -- but otherwise has little impact...
ALPHA - The abnormal rate of return on a security or portfolio in excess of what would be predicted by an equilibrium model like the capital asset pricing model (CAPM).
BET - an act of risking a sum of money on the outcome of a future event.
Essentially, Alphabet will own a large portfolio of companies, make bets on the future and outperform expectations. It's a phenomenal name from that perspective.
Interesting move by the megalomaniacs who run Google, to name themselves with a noun that fundamentally references civilized knowledge, "alphabet", the root of language, maybe since we climbed out of caves. This should not be allowed, but not allowed by who? Imagine in the future your little ones learning of the "alphabet" in school. How much free advertising will that be, and to what degree will their growing minds intertwine the language function of the alphabet with this monolithic company that has such a grandiose monopolistic self-image? This is no accident. You can bet the originators of this idea were giddy when they came up with it.
Yes, because kids these days just can't tell their juice box from their phone and that's how Cuppertino totally hooks them early...
And what of those poor brits, is it a fruit, is it a tech company, is it a media company, or is it a music label (the string of lawsuits involving that notwithstanding).
How do the expect to trademark and protect the corporate name "Alphabet" ? Or are they trying to stop us from using English words without compensation ?
They clearly say that Alphabet will not be a consumer facing name, this is to allow each subsidiary to manage its own identity independently.
Larry Page had openly talked of his admiration for Warren Buffett. This is effectively the same organisational model as Berkshire Hathaway. Not very surprising.
Yeah nothing makes me want to buy Google products like knowing that they're actively patterning themselves after Berkshire. There's some interesting articles floating around about just that topic. Some of these entities do a fantastic job of lurking behind their subsidiaries.
ALPHABET is a perfectly distinctive and protectable mark for tech services and whatever else they offer, if they choose to use and register it as such. (And they wouldn't be stopping anyone from using the word in its ordinary sense!!)
This is almost pure investor related, you're not going to see anything by Alphabet. It does allow investors to see how the parts are performing though, e.g. is Nest working or is it just swallowing money. At the moment you can't, without too much digging. So similar to Microsoft result announcements, next time Alphabet announce results you can see which areas are supporting the others, and which are now doing well or bad.
The move makes a lot of sense except for the added potential burden of more overhead as each smaller subsidiary builds its own management stack and kingdom. The move also might result in the creation of artificial organizational barriers that inhibit communication in products that might require capabilities that leverage existing or new products being developed by other subsidiaries. Each smaller organization might end up working in a vacuum rather than participating in the bigger entity. Management will have their wok cut out for them in the form of overcoming those new limitations that largely will grow from human organizational psychology. Given that possibility, there has to be justification that makes the added costs return investment value worthy of the effort.
It might be that this move is being done in order to create individual legal entities working on independent products that give the outside world (fearful governments and private citizens) a certain degree of false comfort regarding the intrusiveness of each new product. If we don't see Subsidiary X's new product as much of a threat individually because our minds don't automatically associate it with other privacy-invading mechanisms that are now made by some other subsidiary, we'll be less likely to view the totality with Alphabet at its head as suspicious. Maybe this is somewhat motivated by a need to deflect litigation from the more wise folks in the Eurozone while making Americans (who already largely accept and submit to Google/Alphabet) a little more apathetic since Americans are unlikely to expend the energy to ponder a more complex corporate creature to at any depth. Therein could lurk the investment value the company is ultimately seeking and might be the motivation below the public announcement for the change. Since Google's PR is never to be taken without a healthy number of salt grains, I'd say looking deeper for the devil in the details is probably worth it. In any case, no matter what discussions happened around the conference tables in the Googleplex, we live in interesting "big data" times where a lot of other companies are just as guilty of trying to analyze and monetize the activities, location, texts, calls, and so forth of the end user. Unfortunately, these other companies like Microsoft that is attempting to rapidly catch up through Windows 10's collection tools or Facebook that's probably as close to Google as possible, but not as pervasively widespread through advertising services, are trailing their market-leading rival in this particular department. Arguably though, Microsoft is doing a better job at keeping data mining out of the limelight (perhaps unintentionally) because much of the classic Microsoft debate still centers around superficial OS UI changes that average people have become accustomed to arguing and fretting about instead.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
34 Comments
Back to Article
TennesseeTony - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Alphabet? Is it April 1st already?devildahusky - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Even though Android will still be under the Google name, it kinda explains the obsession of naming Android builds in alphabetical order 😎Impulses - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Can't wait for the next Nexus phone running Android for a Google Experience by Alphabet... :PHanakoIkezawa - Saturday, August 15, 2015 - link
I'm still holding out for android Nutellaboozed - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
"August 1" looks a little like "April 1" if you squint enough...nandnandnand - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Yeah? How hard do you have to squint for August 10th?boozed - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
That was meant to say August 11 (which it is where I am). Whoops.boozed - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
To answer the question... Probably not too much harder. You'd already be squinting pretty hard!mrdude - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
I had to check my calendar on my desktop just to make absolutely certain it wasn't the 1st of April."Ultimately it remains to be seen what effects this will have on the Google that we’ve known for the past few years. However given that the management structure has remained relatively constant in this move I suspect that business will continue on as usual."
But the kicker is why? Potential spinoff in the future? This move potentially allows for much more clarity with respect to quarterly earnings, but corporations don't often do that. It's usually the opposite -- eg., Intel covering their catastrophic mobile failures.
whiteiphoneproblems - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Sounds like it's to get all that "experimental" stuff off Google's books, no?mrdude - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Yea, but then investors will very quickly demand that such projects be cut off at the root even if they've got the potential to turn out great.I reckon this might have more to do with allowing for a bit more freedom; Google projects without the Google moniker. And I'm stumbling for reasons.
Impulses - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Wouldn't they have demanded the same thing when such projects existed under Google tho? If anything it seems like a PR thing, every time they come up with some crazy project it won't flood the headlines with news of "what Google's up to next", it's all an Alphabet thing now.mrdude - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
Well, when it's all under a single umbrella the subdivisions can be obfuscated. To remain with the Intel example, their mobile losses were clear until that segment of the company fell under the consumer/PC division.prisonerX - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Larry got bored of running Google. It was HARD.The new name reflects the level of flair and creativity going on over there at Google.
jjj - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
So Google will keep hibernating and getting worse under Sundar Pichai while the founders play with the new toys. Nothing new so far then.New segments getting their own leaders is good since Google seems unable to transition those projects into actual products. There are negatives here too , it's costlier, consistency becomes harder but at least this way there is hope that some of the new things will make it.
Google has been lacking ideas, loosing credibility ,lacking any focus and becoming rather evil in the last few years. This won't change that so the future doesn't look much brighter with these changes.
jwcalla - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
lol. just pure lol.GTRagnarok - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
So Google, as we know it, will still be Google, just under a parent company called Alphabet.....Alpha-freaking-bet. Was there NOTHING else?Impulses - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Alphanumeric was taken and imaginary numbers would've been too out there, could be worse, they could've gone for G00gl3 and trolled us all.WaitingForNehalem - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
This will basically become "The Company" from Prison Break. A giant conglomerate with a hand in just about everything. Essentially the Samsung of the West.whiteiphoneproblems - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
...or, alternatively, just a research-y company that makes headlines every once in a while for its far-out ideas, owns some patents, etc. -- but otherwise has little impact...anandreader106 - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
ALPHABETALPHA - The abnormal rate of return on a security or portfolio in excess of what would be predicted by an equilibrium model like the capital asset pricing model (CAPM).
BET - an act of risking a sum of money on the outcome of a future event.
Essentially, Alphabet will own a large portfolio of companies, make bets on the future and outperform expectations. It's a phenomenal name from that perspective.
DBissett - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Interesting move by the megalomaniacs who run Google, to name themselves with a noun that fundamentally references civilized knowledge, "alphabet", the root of language, maybe since we climbed out of caves. This should not be allowed, but not allowed by who? Imagine in the future your little ones learning of the "alphabet" in school. How much free advertising will that be, and to what degree will their growing minds intertwine the language function of the alphabet with this monolithic company that has such a grandiose monopolistic self-image? This is no accident. You can bet the originators of this idea were giddy when they came up with it.Sheninat0r - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
so i guess you don't like windows, apple, adobe, nest, sprint, and amazon either?mkozakewich - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
To be fair, few people in first-world countries work with adobe.Impulses - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Yes, because kids these days just can't tell their juice box from their phone and that's how Cuppertino totally hooks them early...And what of those poor brits, is it a fruit, is it a tech company, is it a media company, or is it a music label (the string of lawsuits involving that notwithstanding).
How they can keep it straight, I just don't know.
whiteiphoneproblems - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
Good grief -- it's a tech holding company name, not even a public-facing brand. School kids will probably hear of it very little!tygrus - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
How do the expect to trademark and protect the corporate name "Alphabet" ? Or are they trying to stop us from using English words without compensation ?aryonoco - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
They clearly say that Alphabet will not be a consumer facing name, this is to allow each subsidiary to manage its own identity independently.Larry Page had openly talked of his admiration for Warren Buffett. This is effectively the same organisational model as Berkshire Hathaway. Not very surprising.
Alexvrb - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
Yeah nothing makes me want to buy Google products like knowing that they're actively patterning themselves after Berkshire. There's some interesting articles floating around about just that topic. Some of these entities do a fantastic job of lurking behind their subsidiaries.whiteiphoneproblems - Monday, August 10, 2015 - link
ALPHABET is a perfectly distinctive and protectable mark for tech services and whatever else they offer, if they choose to use and register it as such. (And they wouldn't be stopping anyone from using the word in its ordinary sense!!)at80eighty - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
its not like they can stop anyone anyway. there are companies already registered with the namecjb110 - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
This is almost pure investor related, you're not going to see anything by Alphabet. It does allow investors to see how the parts are performing though, e.g. is Nest working or is it just swallowing money. At the moment you can't, without too much digging. So similar to Microsoft result announcements, next time Alphabet announce results you can see which areas are supporting the others, and which are now doing well or bad.BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, August 11, 2015 - link
The move makes a lot of sense except for the added potential burden of more overhead as each smaller subsidiary builds its own management stack and kingdom. The move also might result in the creation of artificial organizational barriers that inhibit communication in products that might require capabilities that leverage existing or new products being developed by other subsidiaries. Each smaller organization might end up working in a vacuum rather than participating in the bigger entity. Management will have their wok cut out for them in the form of overcoming those new limitations that largely will grow from human organizational psychology. Given that possibility, there has to be justification that makes the added costs return investment value worthy of the effort.It might be that this move is being done in order to create individual legal entities working on independent products that give the outside world (fearful governments and private citizens) a certain degree of false comfort regarding the intrusiveness of each new product. If we don't see Subsidiary X's new product as much of a threat individually because our minds don't automatically associate it with other privacy-invading mechanisms that are now made by some other subsidiary, we'll be less likely to view the totality with Alphabet at its head as suspicious. Maybe this is somewhat motivated by a need to deflect litigation from the more wise folks in the Eurozone while making Americans (who already largely accept and submit to Google/Alphabet) a little more apathetic since Americans are unlikely to expend the energy to ponder a more complex corporate creature to at any depth. Therein could lurk the investment value the company is ultimately seeking and might be the motivation below the public announcement for the change. Since Google's PR is never to be taken without a healthy number of salt grains, I'd say looking deeper for the devil in the details is probably worth it. In any case, no matter what discussions happened around the conference tables in the Googleplex, we live in interesting "big data" times where a lot of other companies are just as guilty of trying to analyze and monetize the activities, location, texts, calls, and so forth of the end user. Unfortunately, these other companies like Microsoft that is attempting to rapidly catch up through Windows 10's collection tools or Facebook that's probably as close to Google as possible, but not as pervasively widespread through advertising services, are trailing their market-leading rival in this particular department. Arguably though, Microsoft is doing a better job at keeping data mining out of the limelight (perhaps unintentionally) because much of the classic Microsoft debate still centers around superficial OS UI changes that average people have become accustomed to arguing and fretting about instead.
TennesseeTony - Wednesday, August 12, 2015 - link
Yeah, but, Alphabet?