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Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin step down from Alphabet
Larry Page and Sergey Brin have stepped down as the heads of Alphabet, the pair announced in a letter on Tuesday.
Sundar Pichai will become chief executive of both Google and Alphabet. Page and Brin will continue their involvement as co-founders, shareholders and members of Alphabet’s Board of Directors, the memo stated.
The shock move follows years of speculation over the pair's role in the running of the business by failing to appear at official events like shareholder's meetings. Neither attended the company's weekly "TGIF" town hall throughout 2019.
The longstanding event was cancelled in November because of employee leaks and dwindling attendance, raising questions about the future transparency of the company.
The letter, signed by Sergey and Brin, stated: "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!”
“We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company.”
“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.”
Sergey and Brin retain controlling voting rights.
The motives behind the decision immediately garnered criticism, with Luther Lowe, the head of policy for search engine rival Yelp, suggesting that it was little more than a publicity stunt. He claimed that he believed the pair would “continue to be the most powerful people on the planet,” but that, “they’ll be even more invisible”.
Google was founded in 1998 while the pair PhD students at Stanford University, California. The company’s first office was the garage of Susan Wojcicki, who rented it to the pair for $1,700 a month. Wojcicki is now chief executive of vYouTube.
Alphabet was formed in 2015, when Page, who became CEO, and Brin restructured Google to accommodate the expansion of its services. Search, YouTube, Maps, Photos, Android and Chrome remained under Google, which generates most of Alphabet's revenue through advertising. This left "Other Bets", riskier, innovative projects which included its Waymo driverless cars, health companies like Verily and Calico and the defunct Google Glass.
Page famously declined to attend a Senate hearing with Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg in 2018 amid reports he was spending less time in the day-to-day running of the company in favour of his secluded Caribbean island that he owns. Page has been focused on a flying car venture, Kitty Hawk, which yesterday was rebranded to “Wisk” after a series of battery fires, returned deposits and a shake-up at Boeing, which has a stake in the startup.
Brin was last spotted at a charity function in Silicon Valley earlier this month, but had apparently been sidelined after an affair with British employee Amanda Rosenberg in 2014, which Mr Page is said not to have approved of. The scandal caused the longtime friends to stop speaking for some months.
It comes as Google boss Eric Schmidt gave up his seat on Alphabet’s board this June, after 18 years.