Google became a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. when Alphabet was created as Google’s new parent company in 2015.
The restructuring was announced in August 2015 and completed later that year. Larry Page became Alphabet’s chief executive officer, while Sundar Pichai became Google’s CEO. Google continued to contain the company’s major internet products, including Search, YouTube, and Android.
Alphabet was designed to separate Google’s core businesses from a collection of other ventures, often described as “other bets.” These included areas such as life sciences, autonomous vehicles, and investment operations. The structure also gave individual businesses greater independence and clearer reporting.
Alphabet did not replace the Google brand in everyday products. Google remained the name of the search, advertising, mobile, video, and cloud businesses, while Alphabet became the publicly traded corporate parent. This distinction is important when comparing the company’s stock-market value with Google’s products.