Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, have both decided to step down from their everyday roles across Alphabet, their parent company. However, the two said they still plan to remain as board members of the firm and retain their ownership stakes. Meanwhile, Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, is staying to fulfill his role and become the Alphabet's CEO, as well.
In a blog post posted last Dec. 3, the two tech executives said that they were all set to hand the Alphabet reins over to Pichai, who started with Google as the CEO in 2015, and now, set to take over as Alphabet's CEO, too. Alphabet is an umbrella corporation formed in 2015 to hold Google and make it stay structurally apart from the 'other bets' of the company like Waymo, the driverless company car; Verily, the life sciences unit; and the firm's other miscellaneous undertakings.
ALSO READ: How Google's Use of AI Helps Businesses Increase Revenues from Online Shopping
As Alphabet Executives and Co-Founders
Page had served as the Alphabet CEO while Brin as the same business' president. Despite the vital role they play as company executives, the two "had been noticeably absent" from fulfilling their jobs as Ceo and President of Alphabet, respectively. Their absence had been noticeable too, in the recent months' company events, not to mention skipping fully the firm's "regular all-hands meetings this year." This was reported in various online tech news sites. In addition, the two executives also wrote in a blog post that Alphabet had already matured and evolved in the past 20 decades since it was founded.
This day, in 2019, the co-founders continue, if the firm were a person, "it would be a young adult of 21," the perfect time to "leave the roost." Meanwhile, Creative Strategies' Tim Bajarin, a longtime tech analyst, said that for all purposes and intents, Pichai had been the face of the public, not to mention, the most instrumental official inside Google for the last few years. In fact, Alphabet has turned him to be the "top executive voice at shareholdings meetings" and as a spokesperson at the Congressional hearings.
Challenges Awaiting Pichai as the New CEO of the Overall Business of Google
Up to now, Alphabet has not shown any sign that it plans to replace Pichai as the CEO at Google. However, according to Bajarin, doing so might make sense considering he is to have so much to work on as the overall business' CEO, including the regulatory pressures coming from Europe and U.S. Google is presently facing a strong opposition from various privacy groups that care about the personal information Google has collected on its users, more often than not, to aim to advertise.
In addition, Google is facing complaints, too, that it is abusing its dominance in online and search advertising to beat rivals. More so, it is also presently the subject of antitrust investigations by the Department of Justice, Congress, and a contingency of states in the United States, as well as from the European authorities. And lastly, Google has faced harsh criticism too, on the material on its sites, and was charged $170 million because YouTube, its video streaming platform, improperly gathered personal information of children without the consent of their parents.
