Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet • Hacker News Board

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#351

Post by prepend » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:54 AM UTC

summerlight wrote: post #161

There are some ongoing theory-crafting in this thread, but the real reason seems pretty simple; Larry and Sergey obviously don't want to deal with all the management and operational stuffs, but only "moonshots" like autonomous vehicles or quantum computing. Yeah, this was the whole purpose of establishing a holding company, but Alphabet has grown by 2 times (both in employee count and revenue) and probably they're no…

> I think Sundar has been a pretty good CEO and probably a better businessman

Has he though? I get the sense that he’s really Balmering it up in that he inherited a super successful company, and didn’t do much with it except not screw up.

The two big growth areas- social and cloud- are dead or a distant and growing third.

Google hasn’t done much new or exciting through his whole term. So no new products, the 2016 election and congressional testimony debacle, randomly firing different people with no sound reasoning.

It would be neat if someone could establish a vision beyond “10% growth forever through lots of rent seeking.” Maybe a company has to go through their Ballmer to get to their Nadella.

Maybe they can somehow convince Jeff Dean to be CEO and just write an AI that generally maximizes profit.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#352

Post by stjohnswarts » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:57 AM UTC

Frost1x wrote: post #186

darksaints wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cashing out before the antitrust suits start to hit.

I'm not sure how long these sort of antitrust cases take to litigate (I was young during Microsoft's high profile case), but I'd say this is one of the most rational explanations as to why, seemingly out of nowhere, they'd parachute away together. It looks like an attempt to try to distance themselves, their personal images, and their assets before it gets too ugly. I would certainly do so unless my personal financia…

That's why they can cash out at 10% per year because they cases will last a -minimum- of 5-7 years. Google has the best lawyers in the world. Definitely a slow Homer recession into the bushes.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#353

Post by dboreham » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:58 AM UTC

dctoedt wrote: post #320

beaned wrote: post #99

One thing I really like about Larry Page is that it's obvious he never really wanted to be a manager. He's a real nerd at heart who likes technology. But he also realized the value of what he created and acted as a good steward for 20 years. He took the reigns when he needed to, and let others take over when the time was right. He's still one of the people I look up to most.

> he took the reigns Friendly amendment: reins

Perhaps it was a pun?

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#354

Post by grappler » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 1:59 AM UTC

nostromo wrote: post #221

footpath wrote: post #84

https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2019/1203/ Slightly more organized info in the intro bullets. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the CEO and President, respectively, of Alphabet, have decided to leave these roles. They will continue their involvement as co-founders, shareholders and members of Alphabet’s Board of Directors.

I'm curious what their continued involvement will look like. For a while after Bill Gates stepped down as CEO, there was this awkward tension where Steve Balmer was CEO, but people still treated Bill like he was the one in control -- because he was.

“cofounder” isn't “what you're doing now”; it's “what you did 20 years ago” but it's important because people put weight on what the founders say and think. “[large] shareholder” is sort of a role, and often goes together with “member of the board”.

Bill Gates is probably a good example to look to. He also stayed on the board (as chair) and remained a large shareholder, and was looked up to as the cofounder. So I'd imagine “like Bill Gates but with less active interest and involvement”.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#355

Post by stjohnswarts » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:01 AM UTC

xtracto wrote: post #170

emrehan wrote: post #128

Dear Larry and Sergey, Thank you for creating Google. Nobody could prove that without it the web would have been a better place. You couldn’t have known what’s to come when you were raising hundreds of thousands of dollars as two students in 1998. Maybe your leadership has been one of the least evil among the possibilities in the evil world we live in. However, we know what is it like to lose control of your company,…

That is something that I kind of admire about Bill Gates: As Microsoft's boss he was ruthless, and even anti-competitive, all to benefit his own company. But somehow, he is one of the "best type of person" that could become the richest man in our world. There are so many rich people that just look to be buried with their millions or pass it to their family. Hopefully Sergei and Larry will try to get the same type of…

That happens a lot with american robber barons. check out the carnegie's, morgan's, rockefeller's, stanford's etc

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#356

Post by stjohnswarts » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:02 AM UTC

op12op12 wrote: post #223

hangonhn wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So Gates is not alone. Buffet and Ellison have both pledged the vast majority of their wealth to the Gates Foundation. Somewhat unique to the US, our billionaires tends to be fairly philanthropic.

The latest Patriot Act episode did a great deep dive into why this is true, particularly in the US. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS9CFBlLOcg

Billionaires can't save us. But they could save me if they really wanted to.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#357

Post by stjohnswarts » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:04 AM UTC

summerlight wrote: post #161

There are some ongoing theory-crafting in this thread, but the real reason seems pretty simple; Larry and Sergey obviously don't want to deal with all the management and operational stuffs, but only "moonshots" like autonomous vehicles or quantum computing. Yeah, this was the whole purpose of establishing a holding company, but Alphabet has grown by 2 times (both in employee count and revenue) and probably they're no…

Google has never lived up to the "do no evil" motto but under Sundar things have only gotten much worse with no signs of getting better at any point in the future.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#358

Post by stallmanite » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:13 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #182

organsnyder wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the outside, it feels much more like the company is hitting a midlife crisis (feeling unsettled, not as agile as they used to be) than a young adult.

Company lifespans these days are a lot shorter than human lifespans. 25-40 years seems typical, making a company-year 2-3x a human year. By that yardstick, Google was in its young adolescence when it IPO'd (seems reasonable), was an idealistic young adult when I joined in 2009 (also reasonable), is now hitting a midlife crisis, and will die sometime around 2040.

So IBM is like a 300ish year old vampire then? They really seem like an outlier longevity-wise.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#359

Post by basch » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:14 AM UTC

foota wrote: post #316

mschuster91 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And now imagine a society in which it would not be decided by self-proclaimed "philantropists" where societal progress is made and which basic human needs (like a roof over the head of every person, or kids having a lunch at school instead of being shamed for parents too poor to pay) are met, but instead the super rich pay their fair share in taxes and society decides democratically. US billionaires are only philantr…

Sometimes I feel like (some, not all) billionaires are better stewards of money than the US government and people. How much of his wealth does Bill Gates spend on the military industrial complex?

Same argument as letting Mark run Facebook instead of Wall Street quarterly reports. Decisive focus with longer term planning. Autocrats are often more efficient at achieving specific goals. Plus neither really need to campaign and gather votes to stay in power.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#360

Post by paul7986 » Wed, Dec 04, 2019, 2:15 AM UTC

RivieraKid wrote: post #323

hnzix wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> is that a mission for the new decade? It would be nice to see a focused mission from El Goog. From the outside it feels like they incubate a bunch of random semi-competing products which are arbitrarily terminated or boosted. There's a lot of talent that could be marshaled.

People find the thought of a company with a clear mission appealing but there's no clear advantage of having a mission other than maximizing financial value. The company mission is just one of the Sillicon Valley tropes, another one is the idea of "changing the world". Having a mission might be useful for focus and clarity in thinking but if it's taken as something more than that, it's just an artificial constraint.…

Google and it's story were inspirational! The prospect of working there .. free food.. working with fellow like minded people who were supposedly the best of the best(kids from Harvard, Stanford, etc), the 20 percent hacking time they advertised and the fact all was wrapped up in their "Do No Evil," bow made it further an inspirational place to dream to work for or with.

It's "Do No Evil," ethos/mission was important and having one & sticking to it is equally important vs. swiping it under the carpet for the sake of profits. Further it's mission was important to all the women and men they inspired to start up and to get into tech. Yet once they brushed their mission under the rug & focused on money many who they inspired became shocked to learn that many times they do 'Evil," prompting disenchantment. You can see that disenchantment with Google everyday here on Hacker News with the various negative stories and comments about Google. Something I bet if you go back more then five or six years you'd never see here.