I was thinking the same thing; the difference is that Buffet & Munger bought existing companies that were already financially strong/had proven business models,

I was thinking the same thing; the difference is that Buffet & Munger bought existing companies that were already financially strong/had proven business models, and tried to leave their existing management (with a proven track record in that industry) in place. This seems more like Sergey & Brin going to play in non-Google industries with unproven business models that they are experimenting in. (I'm likely being very naive & unfair; obviously they're very smart and wouldn't do this on a whim.) Either way, Alphabet definitely sounds fun. It will be interesting to see how it works out.