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Buried in a paragraph 2/3 of the way down: > ... Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. ... Not knowing the internals of Google, i
by aazaa 7y ago
Buried in a paragraph 2/3 of the way down:
> ... Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. ...
Not knowing the internals of Google, it seems as if this is the announcement that Page and Brin are stepping down. Is this correct?
If so, what an incredibly subtle way to announce a high-profile pair of resignations.
- lacker 7y agoYes, this is the announcement that Page and Brin are stepping down. I wouldn't really call it "incredibly subtle" - most similar announcements are wrapped in a bunch of corporate language as well. This is a pretty standard way to announce this sort of thing.
- im3w1l 7y agoDo you know what they will be doing next?
- givinguflac 7y agoDistancing themselves as much as possible to avoid legal trouble I'm sure .
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- darksaints 7y agoCashing out before the antitrust suits start to hit.
- Frost1x 7y agoI'm not sure how long these sort of antitrust cases take to litigate (I was young during Microsoft's high profile case), but I'd say this is one of the most rational explanations as to why, seemingly out of nowhere, they'd parachute away together. It looks like an attempt to try to distance themselves, their personal images, and their assets before it gets too ugly. I would certainly do so unless my personal financial analysts told me otherwise.
- johannes1234321 7y agoOut of nowhere? - They created Alphabet to pull themselves out of daily Google business.
- Frost1x 7y agoI've seen this explanation multiple times in this thread, but I find it incredibly hard to believe Alphabet was created to shift Sergey and Larry's time away from Google. It seems like there are far easier (and cheaper) ways of accomplishing this without creating a conglomerate.
- johannes1234321 7y agoWell, what they did is install a "CEO" for the main business, so they weren't operationally involved in that part of the business anymore and focused on different side businesses. Now the crown prince takes over everything operationally and the founders move to the board ... No idea if that was the primary plan, but certainly one of the options considered back then.
- hanse00 7y agoYeah. As anyone at Google could tell you, they've been a familiar face at TGIF, and nothing more, for years. At least at the operational level. I'm sure Sundar has had much contact with them. But regular Googlers certainly have not.
- skybrian 7y agoThey've made other major moves together. This is apparently part of a slow fade they've been doing at least since they started Alphabet. The reasons behind that remain mysterious.
- cmrdporcupine 7y agoMysterious? I'd personally retire to enjoy my millions long before I got to the point of having billions, so I don't think there's much explanation needed about why they'd want to not have to worry or work anymore.
- mpalczewski 7y agoThose rarely result in lower stock prices.
- 3fe9a03ccd14ca5 7y agoI guess I just don't believe this. Google is one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. Having both people step down like this is incredibly strange. I mean, neither of them even tried the ol' "I'm stepping down to spend time with my family" thing.
- curious_fella1 7y agoThey were practically absent from day to day affairs anyways. This is unsurprising.
- keenmaster 7y agoLarry and Sergey are basically best friends. Their involvement with Google, as a pair, has been receding for quite some time. Today's announcement was foreshadowed by the creation of Alphabet Inc. as a parent company in 2015.
- vl 7y agoAfter Brin’s affairs came to light, Page was so pissed off, he didn’t talk to him for many months. They might not be best friends at this point.
- smartbit 7y agoDetails in Sergey Brin and Amanda Rosenberg: Inside the Google Co-Founder’s Romance with the Google Glass Marketing Manager | Vanity Fair http://archive.is/kQvuR http://archive.is/kQvuR Febr 2015
- tyingq 7y agoWould be interesting if they cashed out their war chest and started another search engine. Won't happen but fun to think about.
- o-__-o 7y agoThis has been well known for sometime now[0], it was a matter of when.. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/alphabets-larry-page-has-largely-checked-out-report-says.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/13/alphabets-larry-page-has-lar...
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- raldi 7y agoNah, anyone used to reading Google press releases knows that a subject line of, "An Update on X" always means X is being shut down, and thus, "A letter from Larry and Sergey" could mean nothing else except they're stepping down.
- paulgb 7y agoI came to the comments to express my disappointment this wasn't titled "an update on Larry and Sergey".
- gtirloni 7y agoThis meme has to die. It's time.
- papayawhip 7y agoAn Update On This Meme
- warent 7y agoWhen the entire culture of a multibillion dollar megacorporation has become one big meme, there's not much that can be done
- gtirloni 7y agoI remember Google's earlier days when they shutdown projects and people praised them for iterating fast, not carrying weight, etc. The only difference now is that they have more users but I think they have given enough warnings about their shutdowns, IMHO. Now that Google Is Evil (tm), we don't seem to appreciate that behavior as much as we did in the past.
- irrational 7y agoOnly if it isn't true. It's still true.
- gumby 7y agoYou mean they should post "an update on updates"? It seems pretty reliable, actually.
- rory096 7y agoThis paragraph seems pretty straightforward: >Today, in 2019, if the company 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!
- organsnyder 7y agoFrom the outside, it feels much more like the company is hitting a midlife crisis (feeling unsettled, not as agile as they used to be) than a young adult.
- nostrademons 7y agoCompany lifespans these days are a lot shorter than human lifespans. 25-40 years seems typical, making a company-year 2-3x a human year. By that yardstick, Google was in its young adolescence when it IPO'd (seems reasonable), was an idealistic young adult when I joined in 2009 (also reasonable), is now hitting a midlife crisis, and will die sometime around 2040.
- tyingq 7y agoIgnoring the lifespan, they are pretty stodgy and conservative now, so middle-aged just seems a better fit.
- cmrdporcupine 7y agoYep I'm down with your timeline. I joined in 2012 and it felt like a person in their late 20s or 30s in an energetic but responsible part of their career, just settling down to have kids... But before all the buying of sailboats and sports cars and treatments for baldness...
- stallmanite 7y agoSo IBM is like a 300ish year old vampire then? They really seem like an outlier longevity-wise.
- anonytrary 7y agoIt's not subtle at all. Anyone who knows the current state of affairs (i.e. Sundar being CEO of Google) will have deduced this based on the myriad of titles on this topic alone.
- seppel 7y agoThe funny thing is: If you are used to coporate speech, then immediately after you read the headline "A letter from Larry and Sergey" you know that there is a resignation coming up.