Google to Reorganize as Alphabet to Keep Its Lead as an Innovator
By CONOR DOUGHERTY

SAN FRANCISCO — Google was founded as a company that did Internet search. Over time, it has broadened into areas as varied as drones, pharmaceuticals and venture capital, none of which make much money, and some of which have spooked investors.

Now Google is listening to Wall Street, while also trying to keep its innovation going. The Silicon Valley behemoth is reorganizing under a new name — Alphabet — and separating its moneymaking businesses from the moonshot ones.

“For Sergey and me this is a very exciting new chapter in the life of Google — the birth of Alphabet,” Larry Page, the chief executive of Google, wrote in a blog post on Monday. “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search.”

Under the new structure, Mr. Page is to run Alphabet along with Sergey Brin, who co-founded the web search business with him in 1998. Alphabet would be the parent entity, housing several companies, with the biggest among them Google. In addition, the portfolio would include Nest, the smart-thermostat maker, and Calico, a company focused on longevity, among other things. Sundar Pichai, who had been senior vice president in charge of products, will be chief executive of Google, which will encompass Internet products like search, maps, YouTube and applications like Gmail.

Google’s move is the most significant step by a Silicon Valley giant to get a handle on the sprawl of businesses that it has entered, an issue that increasingly afflicts other technology companies like Facebook and Amazon. While all of these tech companies began as entities focused on one main business, online bookselling or a social network, for example, many have diversified over the years into numerous side businesses including cloud computing, photo sharing and even satellites.

Some of those tech companies have started to give more clarity to their fast-growing new businesses. This year, Amazon broke out the results of its cloud-computing unit for the first time. But Google is going a step further than the rest by formalizing a portfolio-like approach to its various businesses.

The change is an effort to keep Google innovative. As other big technology companies have gotten old, some have been felled by a desire to remain wed to their traditional core businesses. With its new structure, Google can give operating divisions more leeway in making their own decisions and keep the businesses more nimble. The configuration is reminiscent of that of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren E. Buffett’s industrial empire, a giant conglomerate that includes railroads and Fruit of the Loom underwear.

“We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental changes,” Mr. Page wrote. “But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.”

A holding company structure also gives Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, who became multibillionaires when Google went public in 2004, room to make big new bets to add to Alphabet’s portfolio — without annoying Wall Street. Over the last few years, investors have expressed concern that Google has become distracted from its core web search, instead pursuing projects fancied by its founders, like self-driving cars or a pill to detect cancer.

The holding-company structure is set to provide more financial transparency. Starting in the fourth quarter of this year, Alphabet will break out financial results for Google Inc., as well as for the overall company. While investors will not be able to see individual results for other companies, the system will make it easier to get a sense of how Google’s core business is doing.

Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Financial, said the reorganization laid a foundation for making further disclosures later, such as unveiling results for YouTube — which has become a driver of the company’s advertising business — or a better sense of how much money is being spent on initiatives like drones.

“How much money are they wasting or investing outside of their core?” Mr. Gillis said. “We’ll get to see how much is that overhead.”

Google discussed increasing its transparency in the last year, which lifted its stock.

Yet the move raises questions, including how Alphabet will dole out money for more speculative projects and what this means for Google’s regulatory and legal issues, like its antitrust battle in Europe. David Larcker, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, said a holding company was a complicated structure that Wall Street had lately frowned upon. Most recently, investors pushed General Electric to spin out its finance unit after the business, which had long raised profits, became a drag on the company after the 2008 financial crisis.

“If you go backward in time, the gigantic conglomerates unraveled between the 1970s and the 1990s because it became too unwieldy to manage them,” Mr. Larcker said.

The reorganization puts a rubber stamp on a move that Mr. Page has been telegraphing for some time. In an interview with The Financial Times last year, Mr. Page said there was no model for the kind of company that Google wanted to become, but he said he admired Mr. Buffett for embodying some of the qualities of the task that lay ahead.

Last October, he gave Mr. Pichai responsibility for most of Google’s biggest products, making him, in effect, chief executive of most of Google’s core products. Now he gets the title of chief executive of a new company known as Google Inc. The logic, Mr. Page said in a memo to employees, was to continue to build Google’s core business “while also getting the next generation of big bets off the ground.”

“As you ‘age’ — even when you’re still a teenager like Google — you have to work hard to stay innovative,” Mr. Page wrote in the memo, which was obtained by The New York Times.

Mr. Pichai will add YouTube to his list of products. The YouTube chief executive, Susan Wojcicki, will now report to him, whereas she previously reported to Mr. Page. In addition, Mr. Pichai will oversee the business operations for Google Inc.

Google’s current business chief, Omid Kordestani, will end that role and become an adviser to Alphabet and Google. Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Google, will remain in that position and will also be chief financial officer for Alphabet.

Other entities under Alphabet will include Google Fiber, a provider of ultrafast Internet service. There will also be two financial businesses, Google Ventures, the venture capital arm, and Capital, which does private-equity-like deals.

Google X, which includes projects like self-driving cars, a drone delivery service and an attempt to make Internet-connected balloons, will be managed separately and run by Mr. Brin.

Google改組 變「字母」公司

網路巨擘Google十日宣布重組營運結構，成立一個控股母公司Alphabet（字母公司），Google將成為字母公司旗下最大的子公司，掌管最賺錢的網路事業，包括搜尋、廣告、YouTube、行動軟體等，其他一些創新但還不太賺錢的事業，如研究自動駕駛車和無人機的Google X、智慧型調溫器製造商Nest和研究長壽方法的Calico，都將成為字母公司的子公司。

Google創辦人兼執行長佩吉在部落格上發表公開信說：「我和謝爾蓋（布林，另一創辦人）對於字母公司誕生，Google生命展開新頁，感到無比興奮。我們喜歡字母這個名稱，因為字母集合成語言，是人類最重要的創意，也是Google搜尋的核心。」佩吉說，Alpha-bet的Alpha在金融界也有「高於標準的投資報酬」之意。

佩吉說，Google這些年做了許多瘋狂的事，這些東西有的後來產生數億用戶，包括Google地圖、Android手機系統等。他說，Google會繼續做「旁人認為瘋狂、但我們做起來超級開心的事」。

師法「股神」巴菲特 執行長佩吉準備權力下放

彭博社報導，Google成立控股公司的構想，是師法「股神」巴菲特的波克夏公司。波克夏就是一家控股公司，旗下有八十多家子公司，包山包海，從保險、鐵路、跑鞋到冰淇淋。

佩吉是巴菲特的鐵粉，常向他請益，而今把巴菲特對他的影響付諸行動。投資家沃爾曼說：「他們把巴菲特當成英雄，波克夏就是樣板。」

巴菲特的管理之道是讓管理團隊獨立經營子公司，佩吉也準備權力下放。字母公司成立後，佩吉任執行長，布林擔任總裁，施密特擔任執行董事長。四十三歲的印度裔皮采將任Google新執行長，他被看好是佩吉的接班人。

為何成立控股公司？為了財務透明與促進研發

財務透明與促進研發是Google成立控股公司的兩大目的。華爾街早就要求上市的Google財務透明，把大筆錢投進一些回報難料的研究時，應更清楚說明。未來Google的新研究將在字母公司其他子公司進行，保持研發動能，並讓Google本業的財報更清楚。

自第四季起，Google核心事業和字母公司旗下每項事業，都將分別公布財報。Google現有股票將轉換成字母公司股票，交易代號沿用「GOOG」和「GOOGL」。Google在美股收盤後宣布新公司架構，盤後股價暴漲百分之七。

Google改組 控股出擊
組織大調整 成立「字母」公司 高層由原班人馬出任 納入原核心事業與新投資計畫 股價大漲

矽谷科技巨人Google宣布大規模結構改組，將把核心的搜尋與廣告事業與一連串投資計畫分開，一併納入新成立的控股公司旗下，加速轉型成押注於多項新興科技領域的企業集團。Google 11日早盤股價一度大漲6.5%。

Google 10日宣布成立新控股公司，稱為「字母公司」（Alphabet），將管理日益增加的新事業，俗稱「射月」計畫（moonshots），包括研發機器人、自動駕駛車、疾病療法、奈米粒子、傳送網路訊號的高空氣球等。

Google在10日美股盤後宣布新公司架構，11日早盤最高6.5%至674.90美元，今年以來至10日為止漲20%，絕大部漲勢是在上月公布第2季財報之後。

字母公司管理層將由Google原班人馬出任，包括佩吉擔任執行長、共同創辦人布林擔任總裁、施密特仍擔任執行董事長。財務長波蕾特（Ruth Porat）將兼任字母公司及Google財庫。

Google將成為字母公司旗下的子公司，掌管獲利豐厚的核心網路事業，這些核心事業去年總營收將近660億美元。今年43歲、目前負責Google網路事業產品與工程事務的皮伽（Sundar Pichai）將升任Google執行長。

佩吉說，新控股母公司命名「字母」，有兩層含意。一是代表語言，即「Google搜尋的索引核心」，二是取「阿爾發賭注」（Alpha-bet）之意，凸顯達到「高於標準投資報酬」的志向。

「字母公司」旗下每個子公司將各設一位執行長，直接對佩吉彙報，這種結構與「股神」巴菲特領導的波克夏公司類似。佩吉去年12月在股東會上表示有意師法波克夏，作為管理業務龐雜企業集團的榜樣。

分析師指出，結構改組可讓創辦人佩吉與布林免於操勞日常營運事務，可集中精力擘劃公司策略，把觸角伸向更廣的科技領域。

此舉也將提升財務透明度，回應華爾街對財務紀律的要求。自第4季起，Google核心事業和「字母公司」旗下每項業務，都將分別公布財報，讓投資人更清楚核心網路事業表現如何，也有助減輕投資人對各項「射月」計畫支出的疑慮。

新架構將方便Google透過收購納入新事業，日後也更容易讓實驗性業務獨立門戶。Google現有股票將轉換成「字母公司」股票，交易代號沿用「GOOG」和「GOOGL」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/technology/google-alphabet-restructuring.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/technology/20150811/c11google/zh-hant/

2015-08-12．聯合報．A2．焦點．編譯田思怡
經濟日報．A10．國際．編譯湯淑君