Google created the holding company Alphabet in 2015 to reorganize its businesses.
Google announced the Alphabet restructuring in August 2015, and the new holding company began operating later that year. Under the arrangement, Google became a subsidiary focused on internet products such as Search, YouTube, and Android, while other ventures were placed in separate Alphabet businesses.
The reorganization was intended to make the company’s major activities more independent and easier to manage. Sundar Pichai became Google’s chief executive, while Larry Page became Alphabet’s CEO and Sergey Brin became its president. In December 2019, Pichai also became Alphabet’s CEO.
Alphabet is the publicly traded parent company and uses the stock ticker symbols GOOGL and GOOG for its two main share classes. People sometimes call the listed company Google because Google remains its best-known operating business, but the corporate name is Alphabet Inc.