Larry Page, the co-founder of Google has said in a letter to shareholders that he will become the Chief Executive of Google’s new holding company Alphabet, while the Indian born current Senior Vice President of Android, Sundar Pichai, will be the new CEO of Google.
In what can be called nothing but a seismic change in the Internet search giant, Google Inc is changing its operating structure by setting up a new company called Alphabet Inc, which will include the search business and a number of other units.
This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google.
– Larry Page, CEO, Alphabet
The Pride of Chennai: Who Is Sundar Pichai?
Sundar Pichai was born in Tamil Nadu, and schooled at Jawahar Vidyalaya and in Vanavani Matriculation in Chennai. He went on to pursue Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur topping not only his metallurgical batch but also winning the Institute Silver Medal for excellence in academics.
Pichai also has an M.S. from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.
In 2004 is when Pichai landed at Google and in his time there he has headed some of the biggest products in the technology giant’s repertoire, including Chrome and Android. He led the development of Chrome at a time when many felt that an extra browser wasn’t really needed.
If such things are to be believed, it was said that Twitter Inc tried to poach Pichai from Google to lead its products, but Google gave him a bonus pegged anywhere between $10 million and $50 million and persuaded him to stay on.
The fact that he’s now CEO, that bonus was a smart investment.
What’s the Fuss About?
As CEO of Google, Pichai is now at the head of all Google products and will control the suite of existing products and services at Google. Google shares rose 5 percent in after-hours trading after the announcement.
Unannounced Google X projects and the drone delivery program still fall under Alphabet, along with Ventures and Capital, Google’s two investment arms.
Google Inc will now fall under a new holding company, Alphabet, run by the Google’s two co-founders, Page and Sergey Brin, current chief business officer, Omid Kordestani, will be an adviser to Alphabet.
(With Inputs from Reuters)
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