Alphabet Inc. facts for kids
 |
|
.jpg)
Googleplex, home to Alphabet Inc., in Mountain View, California
|
|
|
Trade name
|
Alphabet |
|---|---|
| Public | |
| Industry | Conglomerate |
| Founded | October 2, 2015 |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | Googleplex,
,
U.S.
|
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
|
| Products |
|
| Revenue |  US$282.8 billion (2022) |
|
Operating income
|
 US$74.84 billion (2022) |
| US$59.97 billion (2022) |
|
| Total assets | US$365.3 billion (2022) |
| Total equity | US$256.1 billion (2022) |
| Owners |
|
|
Number of employees
|
181,798 (June 2023) |
| Subsidiaries | |
Alphabet Inc. is a huge American technology company. It's like a parent company for many different businesses, including Google. Its main office is in Mountain View, California.
Alphabet is one of the biggest and most valuable tech companies in the world. It's part of a group called the "Big Five" American information technology companies. The others are Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
Alphabet was created on October 2, 2015. The idea was to make Google's main business clearer and easier to manage. It also allowed other parts of Google to work more independently.
The founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, stepped down from their main leadership roles in 2019. Sundar Pichai, who was already the CEO of Google, became the CEO of Alphabet too. Larry Page and Sergey Brin are still involved as employees and board members. They also own a lot of the company.
How Alphabet Was Created
On August 10, 2015, Google announced a big change. They planned to create a new parent company called Alphabet Inc. Larry Page, who was Google's CEO, shared this news.
Alphabet was made to reorganize Google. It moved many of Google's smaller companies and projects under Alphabet instead. This made Google itself more focused on its main internet products.
The new Alphabet company included Google and other businesses. Some of these were X Development (which works on new technologies), Calico (focused on health), and Waymo (self-driving cars).
Sundar Pichai became the new CEO of Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin moved to lead Alphabet.
Why the Change Happened
Larry Page explained why they created Alphabet. He said it would help them manage things better. They could run different businesses independently, especially those not directly related to Google's main internet services.
He wanted Google to be "a bit slimmed down." This meant that projects far from internet products would be under Alphabet. The goal was to make Google "cleaner and more accountable." It also helped people see what each part of the company was doing more clearly.
An older executive, Eric Schmidt, shared where the idea came from. He said they were inspired by Warren Buffett. Buffett runs a company called Berkshire Hathaway. It's a holding company with many different businesses. Each business has its own strong leader.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin met with Warren Buffett to learn from him. They saw how his company allowed different parts to run on their own. This helped them decide on the structure for Alphabet.
Alphabet's Start
When Alphabet was formed, Google's stock became Alphabet's stock. This meant that if you owned a piece of Google, you now owned a piece of Alphabet. This change happened on October 2, 2015.
Alphabet kept Google's stock history. It still trades on the stock market using Google's old symbols, "GOOG" and "GOOGL." These stocks are part of big lists like the S&P 500.
On December 3, 2019, Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced they were stepping down from their top roles. They are still employees and have a lot of say on the board. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, took over as the CEO of Alphabet as well.
In 2022, the company did a "stock split." This means they divided each share of stock into more shares. This makes the price per share lower, which can make it easier for more people to buy shares.
See also
In Spanish: Alphabet para niños
