3 December 2019: Google's founders hand over the keys
Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced they were stepping down as chief executive and president of Alphabet, Google's parent company, handing the top job to Sundar Pichai, who was already running Google. The founders kept control through super-voting shares. The transition was smooth, and the stock barely reacted. It was a sign that the company had become a mature corporation rather than a founder-led startup.
The lesson: Founder control through special shares means outside investors are passengers, not drivers.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Google / Alphabet at the start of 2020 → $2,941 today, vs $2,092 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 2020, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 2.9 times the money, and $849 more than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Google / Alphabet teaches: Owning a toll road on a growing activity can be enough; Alphabet's search monopoly kept compounding through crises, lawsuits and repeated predictions of its disruption.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $26.00 | $7,692 | $3,301 |
| 2018 | $55.00 | $3,636 | $2,519 |
| 2020 | $68.00 | $2,941 | $2,092 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Google / Alphabet? Every starting year and the full story →
More Google / Alphabet history
- 12 January 2010: Google threatens to leave China
- 29 April 2004: Google files to go public, Dutch auction and all
- 10 August 2015: Google reorganizes itself as Alphabet
- 19 August 2004: Google goes public by auction
- 4 September 1998: Google is incorporated
- 20 October 2020: US sues Google over search dominance
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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