Alphabet owns the Google search engine and uses the stock tickers GOOG and GOOGL.
Alphabet became Google’s parent company in 2015, when Google reorganized its businesses under a new corporate structure. Google remained the largest operating company within Alphabet, while the parent company also housed other businesses and projects.
The two principal share classes have different voting arrangements. Class A shares trade under GOOGL and generally carry one vote per share, while Class C shares trade under GOOG and generally carry no voting rights. Class B shares are privately held and carry enhanced voting power.
Alphabet is among the companies frequently found near the top of global market-cap rankings because of Google Search, YouTube, advertising, cloud services, and Android. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who began the project while they were Stanford University graduate students.