Google To Restructure Itself With Parent Company Being Named Alphabet.

[Owen]

Well it's official. Google will be creating a parent company called Alphabet. This parent company will own Google and other Google-owned companies. Larry Page has stepped down from CEO of Google and will serve as CEO of Alphabet, alongside Sergey Brin who will be serving as president of the new company. Sundar Pichai will also serve as the new CEO of Google. Here's an article about it:

Official Google Blog: G is for Google (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/google-alphabet.html)

What do you guys think?

[Owen]

Also what would this mean for Google stock? o.O

[Brian Altenhofel]

Also what would this mean for Google stock? o.O

Google stock will be converted to Alphabet stock, though the symbols (GOOG and GOOGL) will remain the same, so no need to rename FANG. Google jumped 5% on the news.

Alphabet is a holding company. What we'll probably see is a lot of the R&D done in separate companies from Google so that Google's financials aren't near as negatively impacted as they currently are by moonshot projects such as Glass and autonomous cars.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'll have to watch 'This Week In Google' to get the low down from the pundits. Sounds scary and exciting at the same time. Personally I love Google like I Love Lucy so I can't wait to see what they're going to do next.

[Owen]

Google stock will be converted to Alphabet stock, though the symbols (GOOG and GOOGL) will remain the same, so no need to rename FANG. Google jumped 5% on the news.

Alphabet is a holding company. What we'll probably see is a lot of the R&D done in separate companies from Google so that Google's financials aren't near as negatively impacted as they currently are by moonshot projects such as Glass and autonomous cars.

Why don't they just change their stock ticker? o.O

[Brian Altenhofel]

Why don't they just change their stock ticker? o.O

It takes a lot more to change a stock symbol than it does an entity associated with a stock symbol. Usually when a company renames itself it goes ahead and changes it's symbol as part of it's branding, but in this case the branding of the GOOG and GOOGL mean much more than changing to something else, especially considering that Alphabet is building it's brand around ABC.XYZ and branding-compatible stock symbols for that are already taken.

Google is still the money-making center of Alphabet. When moonshot projects happened within Google before Alphabet, their losses are subsidized by the profits from other parts of the business. After Alphabet, new moonshot projects will be established under separate entities and their losses will have less impact on the returns realized by the parent holding company and no impact on the profits of Google.

[Harold Mansfield]

I think Google is about to go full on Umbrella Corporation. I'm fully ready to stand along side Milla Jovovich and fight for the survival of mankind when it all goes awry.

"Open the hive. I want to see what went on down there." (see 'Resident Evil')

[Owen]

I think Google is about to go full on Umbrella Corporation. I'm fully ready to stand along side Milla Jovovich and fight for the survival of mankind when it all goes awry.

"Open the hive. I want to see what went on down there." (see 'Resident Evil')

Or we could listen to Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking and, oh I don't know, ban artificial intelligence.

[Harold Mansfield]

Or we could listen to Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking and, oh I don't know, ban artificial intelligence.
We're years away from doing that. We won't even consider it until there's a major catastrophe that kills a bunch of people.

And even then the artificial intelligence rights people will just start screaming about enforcing the AI laws that are already on the books while acting as if the loopholes don't exist, and systematically defunding the agencies that enforce them, and then complain about how expensive it will be to implement simple safety protocols because it will unfairly target small businesses, and responsible law abiding AI owners, so they will refuse to accept any safety compromises...and we'll do nothing and AI will just keep getting into the wrong hands and killing people...which just perpetuates the argument that we need more AI to keep us safe from AI.

Cause that's how we do it in America. If we can't solve every possible, imagined scenario all at once, we do nothing at all and just keep taking it in the teeth.

[Harold Mansfield]

This Week in Google is starting right now on Twit.tv.
I'm guessing they'll be talking about it

[Owen]

We're years away from doing that. We won't even consider it until there's a major catastrophe that kills a bunch of people.

And even then the artificial intelligence rights people will just start screaming about enforcing the AI laws that are already on the books while acting as if the loopholes don't exist, and systematically defunding the agencies that enforce them, and then complain about how expensive it will be to implement simple safety protocols because it will unfairly target small businesses, and responsible law abiding AI owners, so they will refuse to accept any safety compromises...and we'll do nothing and AI will just keep getting into the wrong hands and killing people...which just perpetuates the argument that we need more AI to keep us safe from AI.

Cause that's how we do it in America. If we can't solve every possible, imagined scenario all at once, we do nothing at all and just keep taking it in the teeth.

brb just writing my will