What you need to know
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin are stepping down from their leadership roles at Alphabet, Google's parent company.
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai is being appointed as Alphabet's new CEO.
- Sundar will retain his role at Google, too.
Big things are changing in the Google and Alphabet world. On December 3, 2019, Larry Page and Sergey Brin — the co-founders of both companies — published a letter announcing that Google CEO Sundar Pichai will be taking over as the new Alphabet CEO.
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.
Larry and Sergey noted that "Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President." As for their involvement with the companies, they note:
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!
Sundar has been leading Google as CEO since 2015, and he's worked with Larry and Sergey for over 15 years — both of which praise Sundar for his "confidence in the value of the Alphabet structure, and the ability it provides us to tackle big challenges through technology."
Even though Larry and Sergey assure they'll be involved with Google and Alphabet, it's still a little melancholy to see both men stepping down from their roles within the companies. Nothing against Sundar who's proven to do a commendable job managing Google, but watching the founders of any company gradually hand the reigns over to someone else is always a big deal.
Ending their letter, Larry and Sergey say:
We are deeply humbled to have seen a small research project develop into a source of knowledge and empowerment for billions—a bet we made as two Stanford students that led to a multitude of other technology bets. We could not have imagined, back in 1998 when we moved our servers from a dorm room to a garage, the journey that would follow.
