谷歌重組 母公司取名字母表 Google Is Restructuring Under a New Company Called Alphabet

SAN FRANCISCO — Google was born as a company that did Internet search. Over time, it has broadened its interests into everything from drones to pharmaceuticals to venture caPital.

舊金山——谷歌(Google)誕生時是一個互聯網搜索公司。隨着時間推移，它的興趣已經擴大到了從無人機、製藥到風險投資的諸多領域。

Now Google is changing its corporate structure to reflect that it has essentially become a holding company with a disparate collection of businesses.

谷歌實質上已經成爲一家控股公司，旗下囊括各種不同的業務。現在，谷歌對公司的架構做出了調整，以反映這種變化。

Larry Page, co-founder and chief executive of Google, said in a blog post on Monday that he was creating a new company named Alphabet that he would run along with Sergey Brin, the other co-founder of Google.

週一，谷歌聯合創始人兼首席執行官拉里·佩奇(Larry Page)在博客中表示，他要建立一家名爲“字母表”(Alphabet)的公司；並將與谷歌的另一位創始人謝爾蓋·布林(Sergey Brin)共同經營這家新公司。

Alphabet is to act as a parent entity, with several other companies operating under the structure. The biggest among them would be Google. In addition, Alphabet is to house other businesses such as Nest, the smart thermostat maker, and Calico, a company focused on longevity, among others.

Alphabet將充當一個母實體，在其架構中包括若干家其他企業，其中最大的一家是谷歌。此外，Alphabet還會囊括其他業務，比如智能溫控器生產商Nest，以及關注於讓人類延年益壽的Calico等等。

“For Sergey and me this is a very exciting new chapter in the life of Google — the birth of Alphabet,” wrote Mr. Page in the blog post. “We liked the name Alphabet because it means a collection of letters that represent language, one of humanity’s most important innovations, and is the core of how we index with Google search.”

“對於布林和我來說，這是谷歌的生命中一個非常令人興奮的新篇章——Alphabet的誕生，”佩奇在博客文章中寫道。“我們很喜歡Alphabet這個名字，因爲它指的是反映語言的一套字母，而語言是人類的最重要的創新之一，也是我們在谷歌搜索中建立索引的核心。”

For Mr. Page, the decision to shake up Google’s structure is driven by the desire to reinvigorate the company with an entrepreneurial culture and to give operating divisions more leeway to make their own decisions. The structure is reminiscent of that of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren E. Buffett’s industrial empire, a giant conglomerate that includes railroads and Fruit of the Loom underwear.

對於佩奇來說，改變谷歌的架構是爲了重振這家公司的創業文化，併爲業務部門自行決策提供更多的靈活性。該架構有些類似沃倫·巴菲特(Warren E. Buffett)的產業帝國伯克希爾-哈撒韋公司(Berkshire Hathaway)，那是一個巨型集團，旗下業務包括鐵路和“鮮果布衣”(Fruit of the Loom)內衣。

Over the past few years, investors have expressed concern that Google has become distracted from its core web search business, instead pursuing projects fancied by its founders, like self-driving cars or a pill to detect cancer. The new structure formalizes the different initiatives under a portfolio-like approach.

過去的幾年裏，投資者已經表達了一些擔憂，他們認爲，谷歌的注意力從網絡搜索這個核心業務，分散到了其創始人熱衷的項目上，比如無人駕駛汽車和檢測癌症的藥物。現在這個新的架構，則以類似於投資組合的方式，正式確定了不同業務的地位。

The move also provides more financial transparency. Starting in the fourth quarter of this year, Alphabet, the holding company, will break out financial results for Google Inc., as well as the overall company. Investors will not be able to see individual results for other companies, but it will make it easier to get a sense of how Google’s core business is doing. Wall Street has been pushing for more details on how Google’s advertising business is faring, as well as how much money it is plowing into new, more speculative areas.

此舉也提供了更多的財務透明度。從今年四季度起，控股公司Alphabet將分別披露谷歌以及公司整體的財務業績。投資者無法看到其他公司各自的業績，但可以更容易地瞭解谷歌核心業務的經營狀況。華爾街一直在力促谷歌，更詳細地披露廣告業務的情況，以及它把多少錢分配到了投機性更高的新領域中。

Under the new structure, Google will be run by Sundar Pichai as chief executive; Mr. Pichai has been Google’s senior vice president in charge of products. Google will encompass most of the company’s Internet businesses such as search, maps, YouTube and applications like Gmail.

在新的架構下，負責谷歌產品的高級副總裁桑達爾·皮查伊(Sundar Pichai)將成爲谷歌首席執行官，負責其經營管理。谷歌將涵蓋該公司的大部分互聯網業務，比如搜索、地圖、YouTube，以及Gmail這樣的應用。

Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Google, will remain in that role and also be chief financial officer for Alphabet.

谷歌首席財務官露絲·波拉特(Ruth Porat)將兼任Alphabet的首席財務官。

Other entities under Alphabet will include Google Fiber, a provider of ultrafast Internet service. There will also be two financial businesses, Google Ventures, the venture capital arm, and Capital, which does private-equity-like deals. Google X, which includes projects like self-driving cars, a drone delivery service and an attempt to make Internet-connected balloons, will also be managed separately and be run by Mr. Brin.

Alphabet下轄的其他實體包括超高速互聯網服務的提供商谷歌光纖(Google Fiber)，還有兩家金融公司——谷歌風投(Google Ventures)和開展私募股權類交易的Capital。而無人駕駛汽車、無人機送貨服務，以及互聯網接入氣球項目所屬的Google X也將單獨管理，並由布林負責經營。

“We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental changes,” Mr. Page wrote. “But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.”

“我們一直覺得，隨着時間推移，企業往往會安於做同樣的事情，只採取一些增量的變化，”佩奇寫道。“但是在科技行業，革新性的想法會驅動下一個重要的增長領域，你需要做一點脫離舒適區的事情，纔不會靠邊站。”