Should've googled it first! BMW owns Alphabet.com and has no plans to sell it to Google's new parent company
- BMW owns a company called Alphabet and describes website as active
- There are 103 trademarks using the word 'alphabet' or some variation
- Google's umbrella company does not own the @alphabet twitter handle
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced shake-up in blog post on Monday
Google has rebranded as Alphabet, bringing its many subsidiaries under one umbrella organisation.
But it has already run into a snag with its new name, as reports emerged car manufacturer BMW owns the domain Alphabet.com - and it has no plans to sell up.
The German car maker owns a fleet services company called Alphabet and has described its website as 'very active'.
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German car manufacturer BMW owns the domain at Alphabet.com and currently has no plans to sell to Google, which on Monday announced it was rebranding as Alphabet, an umbrella company for its subsidiaries. Pictured is the website of BMW's Alphabet, which a company spokeswoman described as 'very active'
'We are not planning to sell the domain,' a BMW spokeswoman told the New York Times yesterday, and the company is looking into whether any trademark infringement has taken place.
The website Alphabet.com has been down since the New York Times report was published due to the extra traffic it is receiving.
Google's new umbrella organisation does not own the @alphabet twitter handle either, with its owner - Chris Andrikanich - tweeting: 'Well, that was an interesting way to end a Monday...' after the announcement from the search giant.
A Reuters report claims there are 103 trademarks in the US alone that use the word 'alphabet' or some variation of it.
Alphabet is currently operating at abc.xyz where it displays a holding page with a message from Google Co-founder Larry Page.
With the new name came a new logo, with one industry designer describing it as a sign that the company was 'growing up'.
Well, that was an interesting way to end a Monday...
— Chris Andrikanich (@alphabet) August 10, 2015
'There’s an elegance in it that comes with maturity. And I see that elegance in the Alphabet logo,' Natasha Jen told Wired.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced the surprise move to rebrand in a blog post on Monday after stocks closed.
It means the firm will be able to lend more focus on risky ventures at its 'moonshot factory' Google[x] - developing robots, self-driving cars and studying life sciences - while keeping investors happy.
In the shake-up, Mr Page will become the chief executive of Alphabet, while his fellow founder of the $367.6 billion company, Sergey Brin, will become the holding company's president.
Senior vice president Sundar Pichai will receive a long-awaited promotion to become chief executive of Google, which will now solely be a search engine.
With the new name came a new logo (pictured), with one industry designer describing it as a sign that the company was 'growing up'
Moving on: Larry Page (left), Alphabet's new CEO, and Sergey Brin (right), the umbrella firm's president
'This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google,' Mr Page said in the blog post.
'Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable.
'So we are creating a new company, called Alphabet. I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey, as President.'
Alphabet will house the main Google businesses such as Search, Maps and YouTube, along with separately-managed firms such as Fiber and Nest, as well as investment arms Google Ventures and Capital.
The restructuring means investors will get a more detailed insight into how their money is being spent across Google's various projects.
Alphabet Inc will replace Google as the publicly-traded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights.
Wall Street sent up Google's shares by six per cent on Monday and stocks continued to rise after the announcement.
Mr Page said the move is, in part, an attempt to spur innovation and growth as Google nears its twentieth year.
'Sergey and I are seriously in the business of starting new things.
'Alphabet will also include our X lab, which incubates new efforts like Wing, our drone delivery effort.
'We are also stoked about growing our investment arms, Ventures and Capital, as part of this new structure.'
Speaking to Daily Mail Online, Jan Dawson, chief analyst and technology advisory firm JackDaw Research, said the announcement makes sense of Mr Page's speech on Berkshire Hathaway last month.
Mr Page told a group of shareholders in July that he saw Warren Buffett's multinational conglomerate holding company as a business model to aspire to - despite sharing barely anything in common with Google.
Now, his statement appears to make sense. But Mr Dawson remains skeptical about the transformation.
'That's a very different model, and means that although Alphabet might give the CEOs of the various subsidiaries lots of operating independence, they can't be anywhere near financially independent,' Mr Dawson said.
The move means Alphabet will be able to lend more focus on risky ventures at its 'moonshot factory' Google[x] - developing robots, self-driving cars and studying life sciences - while keeping investors happy
'But it does mean that Google could reveal the true profitability of its core business, which could be heartening to shareholders, while raising even more questions about the wisdom of investing in the moonshot businesses.'
John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project director, agreed the move appears to be an attempt to 'keep investors happy' while continuing 'to have their toys like Google Glass and robot cars.'
Mr Simpson warned consumers, 'Alphabet through what will now be called its subsidiary will continue to track us around the web and build digital dossiers about us.'
He added: 'We don't know where in the new corporate structure the robot car project will end up, but you can be sure Alphabet will push the vehicles at us before the cars are ready.'
Across the board, analysts have praised Pichai's promotion.
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