Google CEO Sundar Pichai will now head parent company Alphabet as well.
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who served as CEO and President of Alphabet respectively, are stepping down and handing over the management responsibility to Pichai. “He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet's investment in our portfolio of Other Bets," the founders wrote in a letter. Both Page and Brin will remain on the company board, though.
According to several analysts, Pichai's new role is unlikely to have a major impact in the near term, since investors already know the executive’s achievements at search engine Google well and largely expect business to continue as usual. But at the same time, the shuffle could be indicative of positive changes at Alphabet.
Ever since Pichai stepped in as Google CEO in August 2015, shares of Alphabet have gained around +100% -well exceeding the S&P’s gain of +60% in the same period.
Pichai worked at Applied Materials and McKinsey before joining Google in 2004. At Google, he would go on to work a variety of roles, including overseeing Chrome, product chief of Google and head of the Android operating system, and then CEO in 2015.