Credit: Shutterstock photoImage via The Times Pages
The company formerly known as Google Inc. made headlines last August when the multinational conglomerate decided to perform a complete restructuring of the business. This reconfiguration places Google Inc. as one of multiple subsidiaries of Alphabet Inc. ( GOOGL ).
This announcement was well received by investors, many calling it a Warren Buffett-esque move . The goal of the restructuring was to separate the core Internet-based aspect of Google from the company's other business interests. The new incarnation of Google Inc. is much smaller than it once was, yet is still the largest of Alphabet's subsidiaries.
Alphabet Inc. has eight subsidiaries that are all involved in many projects and offer hundreds of applications and services. Let's start 2016 off right and have everything you need to know about the companies under the Alphabet Inc. umbrella in one convenient location.
1. Calico LLC
Image via Calico
Calico is an independent research and development biotech company established in 2013 by Google Inc. and former Genentech CEO and current Apple Inc. ( AAPL ) Chairman Arthur D. Levinson with the goal of combatting aging.
The "We're tackling aging, one of life's greatest mysteries" company has licensed experimental drug compounds similar to P7C3 that involve the enhancement of the activity of the enzyme Nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase , which plays a role in Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotidebiosynthesis . P7C3 compounds have previously been shown in a number of publications to be beneficial in animal models for age-related neuro-degeneration.
2. Google
Image via Google
I do not need to go into great detail about what the Google division of Alphabet offers because it essentially is synonymous with Google products. In short, Google Inc. is Alphabet's Internet and mobile focused company.
Everything from Google Search, Gmail, Android operating systems for your cellphones, Google Maps, Google Drive, YouTube, and all the other application offered when you click on the Google Apps tab in the top right corner of google.com , Google Inc. is responsible for.
3. Google Capital
Image via GV
Formally known as Google Ventures, GV is Alphabet's second venture capital investment division. GV was one of the first venture capital firms to employ the venture capital services model, providing portfolio companies with access to operational help after making a financial investment.
The difference between the two is that Google Capital focuses on later stage and growth equity investments, while GV invests in companies across all stages and industries, though primarily startup companies.
These startup companies range from Internet, software, and hardware to life science, healthcare, artificial intelligence, transportation, cyber security and agriculture. There over two hundred companies GV has invested in, which makes listing them here quite difficult. The most notable company GV invested in is the leader of the taxi revolution, Uber, one of our companies we suspect to be one of 2016's hottest IPOs .
6. Google [x]
Image via Google [x]
Google [x] is the semi-secret research and development subsidiary whose operations are overseen by Google co-founder and president Sergey Brin and "Captain of the Moonshots" Astro Teller (his real name is Eric).
The research company calls its projects "moonshots." In mid-2014, it reports circulated that there were eight "moonshots" in the works at the Google [x] facility. Of the eight, the most notable revealed projects include: Project Self-Driving Car, Project Wing, a project that aims to rapidly deliver products across a city by using flying vehicles, Project Glass, the project that developed wildly unpopular Google Glass, and Project Loon, a project that aims to bring internet access to everyone by creating an internet network of balloons flying through the stratosphere.
Google [x] has had some interesting rejected projects as well. The one that is the most interesting is the company's attempts to develop a teleportation device . This, of course, did not work because reconfiguring molecules to their exact previous state is currently against the laws of physic.
7. Nest Labs
Image via Nest Labs
Google acquired this company for $3.2 billion back in January 2014. Co-founded by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers in 2010, Nest Labs is a home automation producer of programmable, self-learning, sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats, smoke detectors, and other security system devices.
The company's first product was the Nest Learning Thermostat, introduced in 2011. Nest Labs then introduced in 2013 theNest Protect, which is a smoke and carbon monoxide detector, and in 2015 the Nest Cam, a rebranded Wi-FI streaming camera after Nest Labs acquired Dropcam Inc. the prior year.
In May 2014, German activist group Peng Collective released a parody website named "Google Nest," satirizing Google's privacy policies and practices with fake products imitating Google art style.
The site detailed four new services ridiculing Google's data gathering tendencies made possible with Nest's technology: Google Trust, Google Hug, Google Bee and Google Bye . These products respectively are a "data insurance" paid with personal data, a location service encouraging in-person emotional interactions, a "personal drone," and a memorial website created from automatically collected information.
8. Verily
Image via Verily
Last but not least, Verily. Formally known as Google Life Sciences and previous division of Google [x] - which we will discuss later - Verily is a research organization devoted to the study of life sciences. The organization was a part of Google [x] - until August 2015 when Sergey Brin announced that the organization would become an independent subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.
The projects Verily is currently working on include the following: contact lenses that allow people with diabetes to continually check their glucose levels using a non-intrusive method; a spoon for people with Essential tremors and Parkinson's disease; a project to collect genetic and molecular information from people to create a conception of the ideal healthy individual ; a disease-detecting nanoparticle pill ; and a health-tracking wristband .
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
