Sundar Pichai will also take on the chief executive position at tech holding company - an end of era for the founders of Google's parent company.
Google founders Page and Sergey Brin - founders of Google are stepping down from executive roles at Google's parent company, Alphabet. The two Standford graduate students announced in a letter published to Google's public blog. They will still remain employees of Alphabet but will no longer oversee the affairs of the tech empire created more than 20 years ago. Google's CEO Sundar Pichai will be replacing Page as the CEO of Alphabet.
Alphabet came into existence in 2015 as 'collection of companies' that separates Google from 'other bets' that aren't part of its main businesses, such as Waymo (self-driving cars), Verily(life sciences), Calico(biotech R&D). The move is an end of an era for Google considering the extensive roles its founding figures have played in building a trillion-dollar company. These are one of the most influential figures in the tech industry on par with the founders of Apple and Microsoft, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
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, Page and Brin wrote.
About Pichai, Page and Brin wrote:
Sundar brings humility and a deep passion for technology to our users, partners and our employees every day. He’s worked closely with us for 15 years, through the formation of Alphabet, as CEO of Google, and a member of the Alphabet Board of Directors. He shares our confidence in the value of the Alphabet structure, and the ability it provides us to tackle big challenges through technology. There is no one that we have relied on more since Alphabet was founded, and no better person to lead Google and Alphabet into the future.
While the news sounds like a shocking development for the course of Google's future, it is not surprising to those who have followed their careers. The duo took a lesser role in the day to day activities in 2015 when they turned Google into Alphabet and since then have rarely made public appearances.