Larry Page, Sergey Brin step down from Alphabet, Sundar Pichai takes over the reins

The tech world has been rocked by the news that Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have announced their decision to step down as the CEO and President, respectively, of Google parent company Alphabet. Stepping up to take over the reins is the man they entrusted to takeover Google following their decision to restructure Google as one of many different “Other Bets” under a parent company structure called Alphabet – the name of the new venture is the hybrid of “Alpha” and “bet” to emphasize their decision to take a big gamble at the time.

Page and Brin had this to say:

With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it’s the natural time to simplify our management structure. We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. 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. 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!

Neither Page or Brin has indicated what they will be doing with the additional time that they will have on their hands, other than their ongoing commitment to being closely involved in what “big picture” activities the Alphabet family of companies will continue to invest in. Page and Brin founded Google in September 1998 while both were undertaking their PhD studies at Stanford University. Between the two, they continue to control 14 percent of GOOGL shares (but maintain a 56 percent controlling stake by virtue of 'supershares'), which were up in trading by US$5.88 at US$1,294.74 at the time of writing.