Who owns Google? The Top 5 Google shareholders
Google! A mammoth search giant created in a garage in September 1998. And alas, more than two decades later, the search engine dominates the internet search activity and has vast investments in the technology sphere. The firm's enigmatic and private co-founders that brought to the world a marvellous search engine and other investors performed a comprehensive restructure, making ownership quite baffling. So, who owns Google today?
Source: Getty Images
Successful firms grow beyond the founder's forecast, and the welcoming of investors and expertise in different professions elevates it to a greater height. This happened to Google, that has steered the company to a direction with great corporate ethics and incredible financial backing from investors.
Every year, the company's creative approach to technological innovations, mostly in could computing and internet search activity is growing exponentially. Of course, it is the decision-makers that append their signature on the big moves, but how many shareholders does Google have?
The company’s background
You have probably heard about Alphabet, Google's parent company that was created out of a restructuring process announced in 2015. It was a shock to many people upon the announcement that mentioned that Google would be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet.
Today, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has a multitude of investments that span cloud computing, advertising, software and hardware, and desktop applications. Who knew that for a company created in a garage by two tech gurus would mature into a global conglomerate.
Google was created by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 when they were Computer Science graduate students at Stanford University. The two students met in August 1996 and developed PageRank, which was the stepping stone for Google. After continuous development and input from investors, the company went public in August 2004 at a valuation of $24 billion.
After numerous developments and the entrance of other investors, Larry and Sergey relinquished control of the firm to CEO Sundar Pichai and stepped away from management for good. However, the two kept their controlling shares and seats of the board, maintaining constant communication with Pichai.
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Do you know who the first Google employee was?
Google started as a research project, and it wasn’t until 1996 that Sergey Brin and Larry Page analyzed existing search engines and decided to come up with a new algorithm for ranking pages. They called it BackRub. The infant company was actualized in 1997 and was hosted by the Stanford website.
Upon its completion in 1998, Larry and Co. moved their company to Menlo Park at Susan Wojcicki’s garage. Thus, it is often said to be born out of a friend’s garage. Craig Silverstein was a fellow student at Stanford pursuing a PhD. He became the first-ever employee to serve at Google while Larry page became the CEO.
Google was an accidental name. Initially, "Googol" was intended to be the name but they settled with Google.
Who owns Google? The shareholding structure of primary owners
Source: Getty Images
Without a doubt, Google, under parent company Alphabet, is a technology giant, with vast interests in numerous areas. As of June 30, 2020, the firm has a trailing-12 month (TTM) of $166.03 billion, which is a humungous figure. The company’s vast investments have allowed it to reap big profits every year.
Google has grown to be more than a search engine. Its diversification called for centralized leadership, and thus Alphabet was the solution. Alphabet Inc. became the primary firm with five big investors.
The firm has three classes of shares. These are:
- Class A: These are the ordinary shares that have one vote per share and are publicly traded with the ticker GOOGL.
- Class B: These are super-voting shares with ten votes per share. Class B shares cannot be traded publicly and are mostly owned by founders.
- Cass C: People with Class C shares have no voting right and only share on equity. These are publicly traded with the ticker GOOG.
You are probably wondering how much stake all the Google major shareholders have in the company. The firms have five principal shareholders, their ownership rated according to the number of Class C, B and A-shares they possess.
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Who is the real owner of Google?
Google has five significant shareholders. Three of these Google major shareholders are institutional investors, while the remaining are individuals. So, who owns Google now?
1. Larry Page
Larry Page is one of the co-founders of the firm, which was conceived while studying at Stanford University. He partnered with his fellow at the university for a dissertation, which bore the search engine giant.
Page assumed the CEO role of Google until December 2019, when he stepped down. He welcomed Sundar Pichai as the new Chief Executive Officer of Google and Alphabet, making significant changes in the company's management.
As at this writing or this article, Larry Page has approximately 40.1 million Class C shares in Alphabet. According to Forbes, Larry’s net worth is 64.2 billion.
2. Sergey Brin
Sergey Brin co-founded Google with Larry while at Stanford and proceeded to launch it in a garage. He assumed the role of the President of Google until December 2019 when he stepped down.
Sergey's history is quite interesting as he immigrated to Russia at six years old. After he and his co-founder created Google, they became billionaires when the firm gained pace as the best search engine globally.
Brin is the second-largest shareholder of Alphabet with Class C shares that are worth approximately $38.9 million. He has a net worth of $62.3 billion, making his combined net worth with his other co-founder $127 billion, which is a great fortune.
3. Vanguard Group, Inc.
Vangaurd Group Inc. is a registered client-owned investment firm with about 425 low-cost traditional funds and ETFs. The company has Class C shares worth $22.6 million in Alphabet, making it the third-biggest shareholder of the conglomerate.
4. BlackRock, Inc.
BlackRock, Inc. was founded in 1988 by Laurence D. Fink and other seven partners. As the chairman and chief executive of the company, Laurence has managed to steer the firm to become a global leader in investment and technology solutions.
The company's role is to guide people in experiencing financial well-being. This way, the firm assists employees, shareholders, and society in achieving financial freedom. The firm offers investment products from index and alpha portfolio construction among many more.
BlackRock, Inc. currently has approximately $20 million Class C shares in Alphabet as of the writing of this article.
5. T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.
T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. has $12.3 million Class C shares in Alphabet. The firm has over eighty years of investment experience and has maintained its client base using a collaborative culture and dedication to propriety research.
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Is Google owned by Microsoft?
Source: Getty Images
Google is a subsidiary of Alphabet, which happened after a restructuring process in 2015. Alphabet has transitioned to become one of the world's most prominent technology companies with a market capitalization of $1trilion as of July 2020.
Who owns the alphabet company?
Alphabet is a conglomerate of several firms including Google, YouTube and many more. The firm has five major shareholders with different voting rights controlling its operations. Alphabet’s current CEO is Sundar Pichai.
Is Facebook owned by Google?
No. Both are different companies that have dominated the technology sphere. Facebook is a social media giant, while Google is a search engine. Google doesn't have any ownership in Facebook, and Facebook doesn't have ownership in Google as well.
Is Google American owned?
Google’s ownership is according to the company’s shareholding, which is among five big investors and others. However, the parent company Alphabet is a multinational conglomerate with its head office in Mountain View, California.
Is Google bigger than Apple?
Even though numbers often change, Google’s parent firm, Alphabet has overtaken Apple. This means that it is the wealthiest technology firm in the world. Apple and Microsoft are below the $1 trillion level that Google has already reached.
There you have it, the latest shareholding of Google. Has your inquiry of “Who owns Google?" been answered? The conglomerate parent company, Alphabet is making significant headway in the fast-growing technology industry.
Are you wondering how much the wealthiest CEOs can lose in a day? Yen.com.gh on September 6 featured an interesting article on the possible day losses of the world's billionaires, and you will be amazed at the figure.
For instance, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO has, at a time lost $9billion in a single day. Considering the amounts that these rich personalities make, such losses are easily recoverable in other investment that cushions their investments.
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Source: YEN.com.gh
