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Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

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421–430 of 637 posts

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

#421

Weirdly this feels like a non-issue. Google has not felt like it has a "personality" for some time - maybe it's a function of hitting mega-corporate size, but it also feels a bit like when Microsoft (a Computer on every Desktop) essentially achieved its goal, it then spent a decade in "goalless and soulless exploitation" mode - something that one suspects is the next step for the worlds largest personality-free platf…

What makes you think they're retiring to sit on their asses all day and "spend their billions"? Maybe they have new and interesting things to do.

Because they historically have done new and interesting things under the corporate protection afforded by the Google cash cow.

Why spend their own money on a risky capital intensive venture when their cash engine let them do it unopposed?

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

#422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people asked the same thing about facebook in 2008

Facebook was started by one college kid 4 years prior. Waymo has had the resources of one of the largest companies in the world for the last 10 years.

And their core goal of truly autonomous vehicles is a technical challenge that at this point seems like it will take at least several years more than what they originally thought 3 years ago. Their situation is not similar to FB in 2008 at all.

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

#423
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also unique to the US. We have one of the highest infant mortality rates of any developed country. And our average life expectancy is one of the lowest for a developed country [0]. We could a lot less philanthropic billionaires and more economic policies that don't treat everyone as disposable cogs. [0] http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/life-expectancy-b...

The high infant mortality is largely explained by the fact that the US counts premature birth related deaths as part of infant mortality and other countries don't. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161013103132.h... Life expectancy loss is mostly drugs and obesity. Hard to see how philanthropic billionaires are a problem on either front.

Drug abuse and obesity are generally a response to chronic stress. America has a chronic stress epidemic due to our work culture and lack of social safety nets. Philanthropic billionaires are people (or progeny of those) who successfully exploited this system. Ergo, the existence of one is correlated with the other, and they share a common cause.

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

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The high infant mortality is largely explained by the fact that the US counts premature birth related deaths as part of infant mortality and other countries don't. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161013103132.h... Life expectancy loss is mostly drugs and obesity. Hard to see how philanthropic billionaires are a problem on either front.

Drug abuse and obesity are generally a response to chronic stress. America has a chronic stress epidemic due to our work culture and lack of social safety nets. Philanthropic billionaires are people (or progeny of those) who successfully exploited this system. Ergo, the existence of one is correlated with the other, and they share a common cause.

Has our work culture recently become more stressful or our safety nets diminished?

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

#425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this being downvoted? Now it's flagged. This is ridiculous.

Because it's an extremely dishonest take on a highly political issue.

Isn't the more appropriate response to respond to the comment rather than downvote it? It doesn't seem to be a personal attack, or some other violation of the community guidelines.

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

#426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a way this seems like an admission of the failure of the "Alphabet" thing. The idea behind that originally was that all of these other projects were going to become so significant that it wouldn't make sense to have them or their management coupled with Google. But a half-decade later, it's still 99.9% Google, so just double-up the Google guy to lead both tiers. Same as it ever was.

Removing the “firewall” between Google and Google Health will prove to have been a big mistake. They should have stayed separate under Alphabet.

[deleted]

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

#427

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.

In a way this seems like an admission of the failure of the "Alphabet" thing. The idea behind that originally was that all of these other projects were going to become so significant that it wouldn't make sense to have them or their management coupled with Google. But a half-decade later, it's still 99.9% Google, so just double-up the Google guy to lead both tiers. Same as it ever was.

not that I know anything but it seems like the decision was complex both to create the Alphabet and now to kind of merge it under one CEO.

I think some of the reasons could be they no longer see a risk of anti Monopoly regulation targeting them so they don't need to keep everything so divided. they genuinely want to give Sundar a go. They need a process to gradually fade out The original founders, but also importantly ensure those founders isolate their risk from any future missteps the companies take, and vice versa.

maybe the two co-founders were simply getting in the way.

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

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's an extremely dishonest take on a highly political issue.

Isn't the more appropriate response to respond to the comment rather than downvote it? It doesn't seem to be a personal attack, or some other violation of the community guidelines.

I know my account is the one in green, but: you must be new here.

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

#430

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.

In a way this seems like an admission of the failure of the "Alphabet" thing. The idea behind that originally was that all of these other projects were going to become so significant that it wouldn't make sense to have them or their management coupled with Google. But a half-decade later, it's still 99.9% Google, so just double-up the Google guy to lead both tiers. Same as it ever was.

What do you mean, "failure"? Google hasn't been hit with an antitrust lawsuit which makes it an unmitigated success!
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