Google Founders Resign From Alphabet Leadership, Sundar Pichai Becomes CEO

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is adding another responsibility to his job: Pichai will also be the CEO of parent holding company Alphabet going forward, taking the helm from co-founder and longtime CEO Larry Page. From a report: Additionally, co-founder Sergey Brin will be resigning from his post as the president of Alphabet. Brin and Page jointly announced the leadership change in a blog post Tuesday afternoon, writing: "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."

Fishy?

[lazarus]

So either Larry and Sergey are working up something so new and interesting that it warrants leaving their baby, or they can see something super nasty coming down and don't want to be wearing it when it happens.

Re:

[Quakeulf]

They're involved with Epstein.

Re:Fishy?

[Anachronous Coward]

They're involved with Epstein.

I hope you're not accusing them of necrophilia.

Re:

[geekmux]

They're involved with Epstein.

I hope you're not accusing them of necrophilia.

Google would probably welcome that accusation to get rid of a few others.

Third Option

[drinkypoo]

Or they've been told that they will be pushed out forcibly if they don't go gracefully.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I call BS. Everyone knows inflatable dolls can't talk...

Re:

[Austerity Empowers]

It seems kind of obvious to me that there was a "hostile takeover" by some definition when Alphabet happened, and they were paid off but would have no executive role. The transition period has ended and they're free agents.

That said, Google is probably not a desirable place for smart people to continue to work at. I will enjoy watching the culture they carefully cultivated enable the company to explode, leaving a bunch of very rich, very bad people, holding a bag of nothing.

Re:Third Option

[dgatwood]

It seems kind of obvious to me that there was a "hostile takeover" by some definition when Alphabet happened, and they were paid off but would have no executive role. The transition period has ended and they're free agents.

Between them, they own 51 percent of all voting shares in Alphabet. They could quite literally hold on to the reins and run the company right into chapter 7 bankruptcy if they both agreed that it was the right thing to do, short of the SEC somehow forcing them to do otherwise. So that theory seems pretty unlikely to me. :-)

Re:

[geek]

It seems kind of obvious to me that there was a "hostile takeover" by some definition when Alphabet happened, and they were paid off but would have no executive role. The transition period has ended and they're free agents.

Between them, they own 51 percent of all voting shares in Alphabet. They could quite literally hold on to the reins and run the company right into chapter 7 bankruptcy if they both agreed that it was the right thing to do, short of the SEC somehow forcing them to do otherwise. So that theory seems pretty unlikely to me. :-)

Not exactly. Even with 51 percent the board and other shareholders have legal recourse. If they are making obvious moves to tank the company then the other investors can't be held hostage, lawsuits would significantly delay any negative impact and ultimate could force a sell off of shares. It's never as easy as "I own it, fuck you" when it comes to publicly traded companies.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Each share owned by a Google founder gets ten votes, investors get one vote per share, class C stock gets zero votes.

Reportedly, Page and Brin own about 14 percent of its shares and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock.

So, no they can't be pushed out forcibly.

The S4 document from the Google IPO in 2004 is an interesting read, another gem is that it says that Google will not pay any dividends for the foreseeable future.

Stockholders get no control of the company and no

Re:

[Tough Love]

Or they've been told that they will be pushed out forcibly if they don't go gracefully.

Not going to happen, they still control a majority of votes through their B share holdings.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Fishy?

[buck-yar]

Or maybe they realized our time alive is limited.

Yep why go to work? Busy giving billions

[raymorris]

I already decided that if and when I hit the $20 million mark, it's time to stop making money full-time and start giving it away full-time. I'd probably still earn part-time.

Why set the alarm and get up when you don't feel like when you already have have about as much money as you could possibly so and responsibly give in your lifetime? Even more, why be at work until 7:00 or 8:00 PM everyday? (CEO of Google is very much not a part-time job, it's a demanding job).

Once they are confident that they're leavi

Re:

[110010001000]

Believe it or not some people find their jobs to be fun and fulfilling. What else are you going to do? Sit at home?

Re:

[NateFromMich]

Believe it or not some people find their jobs to be fun and fulfilling.

I don't.

What else are you going to do? Sit at home?

Sounds good.

Re: Yep why go to work? Busy giving billions

[gosso920]

You don't need $20 million to sit at home. Take a look at my cousin - he's broke, don't do shit.

After 20 years of 60 hours, other things are fun t

[raymorris]

I've enjoyed my job for most of my career. They've been running Google for 20 years now. Jetskiing and relaxing is fun too; it might be time for some of that.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

So how close are you to your goal?

Re:

[raymorris]

I'm on track. I mostly stopped doing really stupid stuff about 6 years ago, and it's been progressing according to plan since.

Mostly stopped the stupid - not entirely. :). I gave up about $120K recently because I couldn't keep my damn mouth shut about socio-political bullshit. That was pretty fucking dumb.

Scratch that

[raymorris]

That $120K number is way wrong. My thumb swiped faster than my brain was thinking. Anyway the point is I still do dumb shit. Just a lot better than I did before, so I'm getting much better results.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

I gave up more than that a year recently, on moral grounds. I'm very fortunate to be able to make those kinds of principled decisions and I regard that as worth every penny.

Re:

[raymorris]

I'm curious about the "moral grounds" in your situation.

I suspect you may have been perfectly fine with the behavior that I thought was very wrong, and I objected to. I couldn't be a part of it.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

A couple of days before I interviewed with them they were sued by human rights lawyers for exploiting child labour. Another part of the company but the area I was in was iffy too.

Re:

[raymorris]

Eek. I'm glad you found out about that early.

Re:Fishy?

[93 Escort Wagon]

So either Larry and Sergey are working up something so new and interesting that it warrants leaving their baby, or they can see something super nasty coming down and don't want to be wearing it when it happens.

I pick option 3.

They're both filthy rich, and - at least from the outside - already haven't seemed particularly engaged with Goophabet for several years now. This move is probably just the formalization of the existing status quo within the company (oh yeah, make that "companies" nudge nudge wink wink).

Re:

[returnOfEssreenim]

The latter I think. They've taken all the cash and will continue to do so. There's really nothing inspiring about Google. They had their time. Now they are just an ad tax platform with some other stuff that's nothing too world changing. They are retiring maybe.

Re:World Domination

[DanielRavenNest]

I think they are just stepping back from day-to-day operations so they have more time to plot world domination, and flying cars in Page's case. Pichai can handle the daily nuts and bolts of running the current business.

Good is dead at Google. Long live evil

[WindBourne]

Pichai is as bad and evil as Gates and balmer were. Now, alphabet/Google joins with MS, IBM, HP, He, etc. In being evil.

Long live evil?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Always two CEOs there are; no more, no less?

Re:

[Samantha Wright]

So... Pichai, CEO of Google, and Pichai, CEO of Alphabet?

Re: Good is dead at Google. Long live evil

[Way Smarter Than You]

Oh and Page n Brin were ever any different? Once the billions were rolling in they were exactly the same as the rest. Do you really think they're both good guys who didn't notice who they hired as CEO and only just now said, "oh my! Golly! This guy is eeeeevil! We should resign now before he gets us! Heavens to Betsy, run!"? Lmao, no, they're all evil. You are the product no matter who is in charge.

Re:

[rtb61]

So they are simply quiting to try to distance themselves from the evil they purposefully created. Google's reputation is turning to absolute shite, corrupt democracy to favour their lust for power and greed, just really fucking awful people and the minions of google and people already knew https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] can you find the hidden G and note the colours, googlites the minions of evil, working there will become a shameful embarrassment.

Re: Good is dead at Google. Long live evil

[Way Smarter Than You]

I think it's a combination of what you said about trying to salvage their public reputations (like somehow the public thinks Bill Gates is a philanthropist good guy, giving back a tiny fraction of what he stole), and also because maybe they're just bored of it all and want to enjoy their I'll gotten gains before they die. If I was worth what they are I'd quit, too. Who wants to deal with all that bullshit everyday when you can travel the world in style?

Re:

[shess]

Pichai is as bad and evil as Gates and balmer were.
Now, alphabet/Google joins with MS, IBM, HP, He, etc. In being evil.

Citation needed? Or even a shred of evidence? Larry or Sergey could give you a Gates vibe when they dug into your project, but none of these people are Ballmeresque at all. If anything, Sundar seems excessively thoughtful.

In other words, "We are not ...

[CaptainDork]

... responsible or accountable for the way Google and Alphabet's management has cooked the books regarding investment in our portfolio of Other Bets."

This seems to negate the spirit of the split.

[Headw1nd]

If you wanted unified leadership, why did they make the split in the first place? Also, if Alphabet was part of Google's plan to avoid monopoly charges, this is not going to help that case.

Re:

[Lab Rat Jason]

Unless you just got assurances from the justice department that no charges will be filed.

Alphabet fiction

[Tailhook]

Guess we can all stop pretending the Google/Alphabet split ever had a point.

Re:

[geek]

Guess we can all stop pretending the Google/Alphabet split ever had a point.

Divide and conquer is still a thing

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

progressives

[eaglesrule]

I’m excited about Alphabet and its long term focus on tackling big challenges through technology.

rubbing out privacy... check
manipulating search results for ideological or political purposes... check
manipulating news feeds, same as above... check
developing machine learning for more effective censorship... check
determining political outcomes .... in progress
enforcing doublethink ... in progress
establishing corporate tyranny... in progress

They still control the stock.

[SlashDotCanSuckMy777]

Doesn't matter if they step down, they still have a control via their shareholding.

Sundar Pichai AKA New Bill Gates

[WasteStable]

Sundar is trying so hard to take over google and become the next Bill Gates. If you don't believe me then wait for few more years and you will know! Meanwhile, go checkout nts jobs [naukry.net]