Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin step down, Sundar Pichai named as the new CEO of Alphabet

Sundar Pichai has been appointed as the new CEO of Alphabet. This comes four years after Google changed its corporate structure, and created Alphabet and appointed Sundar Pichai as the CEO of Google. Now this announcement means that Google and Alphabet will have one CEO - Pichai not only remains the CEO of Google but has additionally donned the hat of the big boss in the group (Alphabet is the larger group), after Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have resigned from their respective big roles.

The Madurai born Sundar Pichai will now look after Google as well as the big group.

Larry Page until today was the CEO of Alphabet, since Google carried out its corporate restructuring in 2015. Sergey Brin on the other hand was the President, mostly focusing on robotics and AI. Both Page and Brin are curtailing their roles even further.

In a joint letter, Page and Brin said - "Today, in 2019, if (Google) was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost. While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it's time to assume the role of proud parents-offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!"

According to the founders, they now want to simplify management structure at Google and Alphabet.

The letter further states, "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."

“We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we're passionate about," say Page and Brin in the letter.

Page and Brin now don't want to be involved in day-to-day workings of Google or Alphabet.

Sundar Pichai has written a separate letter to Google employees in which he assures them that it is business as usual. "I want to be clear that this transition won't affect the Alphabet structure or the work we do day to day. I will continue to be very focused on Google and the deep work we're doing to push the boundaries of computing and build a more helpful Google for everyone," he writes.

Apparently, the share market has acted favorably at the new announcement and has a lot of confidence in Pichai. There is a marginal (less than 1 per cent) positive impact on Google shares. The fact that the price has not gone down is a good sign for Google and Pichai.

There is however going to be no change in the way Google or Alphabet will be doing business in the short to medium term, as stated by the co founders.