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I feel like you're conflating selling Waymo with shutting it down. Shutting it down would be an unnecessary waste, but for the right price, selling it can make

by jerf 7y ago

I feel like you're conflating selling Waymo with shutting it down. Shutting it down would be an unnecessary waste, but for the right price, selling it can make perfect sense, if for no other reason than to allow the core organization to focus better. It's very easy to imagine a world in which Waymo becomes too large for "Google"/Alphabet to deal with without it being a massive distraction to everything else. The company I work for has sold and spun off product lines that were nominally profitable, but still not profitable enough to justify the distractions they caused relative to our other opportunities. Even if they don't sell it, I'd fully expect them to get spun off before they take over the market. At some point, just organizationally, they're going to need to be their own company not subject to conflicting priorities from a parent organization.

whatshisface 7y ago
>if for no other reason than to allow the core organization to focus better. The core organization doesn't want to focus better, if they did they would shut down every subsidiary that wasn't Google. Instead they're maintaining all of these bets because they realize that Google is about as big as it's going to get, and they need to go to the stock market with a long-term plan that isn't just stagnation.
- jerf 7y ago
  If the research organization grows one division that is 95% of the research division due to its success (made up number, not claiming that's where Waymo is), some kind of restructuring will be necessary or the research division won't be a research division anymore.
  - nostrademons 7y ago
    They already did that with the Alphabet restructuring and spinning Waymo out from Google X into a top-level Alphabet company. Alphabet is a technology conglomerate and doesn't pretend to be anything else. They're like GE or Berkshire Hathaway. There's no issue with GE making washing machines at the same time they make jet engines and nuclear reactors, or with Berkshire Hathaway providing insurance, rail freight, and chocolates. Similarly, there's no issue with Waymo and Google both being subsidiaries of Alphabet.

by jerf 7y ago

whatshisface 7y ago

>if for no other reason than to allow the core organization to focus better. The core organization doesn't want to focus better, if they did they would shut down every subsidiary that wasn't Google. Instead they're maintaining all of these bets because they realize that Google is about as big as it's going to get, and they need to go to the stock market with a long-term plan that isn't just stagnation.

jerf 7y ago
If the research organization grows one division that is 95% of the research division due to its success (made up number, not claiming that's where Waymo is), some kind of restructuring will be necessary or the research division won't be a research division anymore.
- nostrademons 7y ago
  They already did that with the Alphabet restructuring and spinning Waymo out from Google X into a top-level Alphabet company. Alphabet is a technology conglomerate and doesn't pretend to be anything else. They're like GE or Berkshire Hathaway. There's no issue with GE making washing machines at the same time they make jet engines and nuclear reactors, or with Berkshire Hathaway providing insurance, rail freight, and chocolates. Similarly, there's no issue with Waymo and Google both being subsidiaries of Alphabet.