Google’s parent Alphabet became the fourth American company that surpassed the $1 trillion mark in market valuation. The other companies include Apple, Amazon and Microsoft – all of which have surpassed the mark within the last two years.
“So proud to see it hit the storied $1T market cap today!” Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, said in a tweet on Monday.
But despite the company reaching this stupendous milestone, there are challenges facing it.
The Silicon Valley giant is bidding adieu to its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Following their exit, the reins of the company would be taken over by SundarPichai, who has been serving in the company for a long time and has been the CEO of Google since 2015. He now takes over a company that is going through a host of changes. Page and Brinhad once commented about Google that it was not a conventional corporation. But the company now is becoming one as has been the trend in recent years.
Professional managers like Ruth Porat, its chief financial officer, who joined from Wall Street in 2015, have been hired by the company in recent times to enable effective management of the increasing scale and size of the company. The company has also been constantly focusing on reducing costs and examining financial viability of the so-called moonshot projects, that had been launched earlier by the company in the era of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, which includes projects like the development of self-driving cars and developing hot-air for internet connectivity.
Google has also incorporated more advertisements at the beginning of search results and has been able to generate revenues out of some of its businesses such as from its video sharing platform YouTube. And cloud computing has been the focus business as well as a growth engine of the company as it manages to bring in more corporate to use its services.
At the same time, there is an apparent change in the once unique and freewheeling corporate culture at Google. There have been outspoken employees and former employees who have come out in the public alleging suppression of free speech with the company on issues such as the handling of complaints of sexual harassment or over the issue of working with the American military on technology which can help in betterment of weapons capabilities.
A number of employees who had been active in labor organizing were fired last year by Google over charges of “clear and repeated violations of our data security policies.” Google has also been accused to working closely with a firm that is known for creating strategies for companies to fend off unions.
The character of the company has changed ever since it has tried to keep Wall Street happy and focus on maintaining growth, said Jack Poulson, a former research scientist who left Google in 2018.
“The ethical lines are being rolled back,” said Poulson, who currently is the executive director of Tech Inquiry - a nonprofit organization that helps tech employees to bring out ethical issues at work and with products they are working on.
(Source:www.nytimes.com)
“So proud to see it hit the storied $1T market cap today!” Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, said in a tweet on Monday.
But despite the company reaching this stupendous milestone, there are challenges facing it.
The Silicon Valley giant is bidding adieu to its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Following their exit, the reins of the company would be taken over by SundarPichai, who has been serving in the company for a long time and has been the CEO of Google since 2015. He now takes over a company that is going through a host of changes. Page and Brinhad once commented about Google that it was not a conventional corporation. But the company now is becoming one as has been the trend in recent years.
Professional managers like Ruth Porat, its chief financial officer, who joined from Wall Street in 2015, have been hired by the company in recent times to enable effective management of the increasing scale and size of the company. The company has also been constantly focusing on reducing costs and examining financial viability of the so-called moonshot projects, that had been launched earlier by the company in the era of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, which includes projects like the development of self-driving cars and developing hot-air for internet connectivity.
Google has also incorporated more advertisements at the beginning of search results and has been able to generate revenues out of some of its businesses such as from its video sharing platform YouTube. And cloud computing has been the focus business as well as a growth engine of the company as it manages to bring in more corporate to use its services.
At the same time, there is an apparent change in the once unique and freewheeling corporate culture at Google. There have been outspoken employees and former employees who have come out in the public alleging suppression of free speech with the company on issues such as the handling of complaints of sexual harassment or over the issue of working with the American military on technology which can help in betterment of weapons capabilities.
A number of employees who had been active in labor organizing were fired last year by Google over charges of “clear and repeated violations of our data security policies.” Google has also been accused to working closely with a firm that is known for creating strategies for companies to fend off unions.
The character of the company has changed ever since it has tried to keep Wall Street happy and focus on maintaining growth, said Jack Poulson, a former research scientist who left Google in 2018.
“The ethical lines are being rolled back,” said Poulson, who currently is the executive director of Tech Inquiry - a nonprofit organization that helps tech employees to bring out ethical issues at work and with products they are working on.
(Source:www.nytimes.com)
