Comment by owlmirror

Alphabet never was “only Google” even on day 1. Google was long a conglomerate containing Google and “Other Bets”, other companies such as Nest etc before the alphabet shuffle.

Google was more or less just as much a holding company for a diverse range of other companies such as this Verily then as Alphabet is now, which is why the distinction between the two is considered so artificial by many here, an idea further compounded by the fact Google stock was converted to Alphabet stock and still uses Google’s ticker symbols.