Why Google Gobbled Up Alphabet Cybersecurity Company

Four years ago, Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, created a new conglomerate called Alphabet that was supposed to help it better incubate companies at arm’s length from the search giant—from Waymo, its self-driving vehicle startup, to Loon, its provider of internet access via aerial balloons.    

So far, the experiment has produced mixed results. In June, Google announced that it planned to absorb an independent cybersecurity company within Alphabet, called Chronicle. While outsiders speculated that the move was pushed by top leadership at Google, Stephen Gillett—who was then CEO of Chronicle and had spent the last several years building it inside Alphabet—told The Information in an interview earlier this week that the idea to make it part of Google’s cloud division was his own.