Why Alphabets days could be numbered under its new CEO

The tech world has gone a long time since a day like Tuesday, where the industry’s tectonic plates shifted in a fashion sudden and dramatic enough to send newsrooms into momentary turmoil. Being sent into momentary turmoil is half the fun of being a reporter, of course, and so I didn’t even mind when I had to throw out a half-written column about political ads (that hoary old topic again?!) in favor of a send-off for Google’s departing co-founders.

Now that we’ve had a day to consider the implications, it seems striking that there are only two real lines of thinking emerging.

The first is: remind us who Sundar Pichai is, and also can he possibly resolve the many challenges in front of him?

The second is: why does Alphabet exist again?

Continue reading…