Alphabet Inc. Decided To Take Facebook’s VR Oculus Rift Head On

The search engine giant is planning on officially entering the virtual reality market; which would result in a more intense war with Facebook and other small rivals.

Alphabet Inc. wants in on everything – as a number of technology corporations shows interest in the latest technology of Virtual Reality, Alphabet Inc. does not want to get left behind and has decided to enter the much competitive market. According to reports by the Financial Times, in order to add extra support to its Android operating system, the search engine giant has decided to develop a novel virtual reality headset for smartphones.

The latest platform war that has been going on at Silicon Valley is that of Virtual Reality headsets, Google’s parent company is ready to take Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Samsung head on. According to the reports, the novel device is expected to be launch by the end of the current year.

Initially the company remained discrete about the matter; but as job postings started to surface that attract VR individuals it became clear what the company was up to. These job postings were interested in individuals for a VR camera so it is expected that, that is something which Alphabet might be launching later this year as well.

Back in 2014, a virtual reality viewer by the name of Google Cardboard was launched – so it is popularly believed that the headset is likely to be the successor of the viewing device. Previously it had a cardboard casing while the new product is expected to have a solid plastic casing which would differentiate it from its predecessors. The Google Cardboard relied completely on a smartphone while the features of the VR headset show that there will be improved sensors and lenses which would make it no rely much on a smartphone. Additionally, according to the report provided by the Financial Times, the device will be utilizing most of the smartphone’s processing power.

Furthermore, the VR headset is just a bonus along with that we are expected finally see the much rumored Android VR operating system. This news came out back in 2015 when The Wall Street Journal reported it; however not much information was provided on the device but the details of it are available. The largest search engine corporation in the world was initially uses the conventional app way to use Google Cardboard but now it has planned to embed a latest software straight in the android operating system.

Presently, no new product announcement have been made by the company itself but two new are likely to be unveiled at Google’s Annual Developer Conference, I/O which is expected to start on May 18, 2016. During the earnings call for the fourth quarter, Google’s chief executive officer Sundar Pichai showed his interest in VR – additionally, the search engine corporation has received better than expected results for its Cardboard as it has delivered over five million units of the product since its launch. The company remains hopeful for the future of the device.

 

Alphabet, Inc. Acquires Bebop Technologies Inc. For $380 Million

2015 has been one of the best years for Google, Inc.; 2016 has a lot to offer with its autonomous car sector, virtual reality market and YouTube.

Bebop Technologies, Inc., a startup founded by Diane Greene who is a Director and Executive at Alphabet, Inc., was acquired by the largest search engine company for a price of $380 million, as per a securities filing earlier on Monday. According to the agreement of the acquisition, the Internet giant offered to give $380 million in shares on December 17, 2015.

The filing stated that the Diane Greene received stock valued $148 million as part of the deal in this entire acquisition which the recognized Silicon Valley businessperson plans to donate to a “donor advised fund.” This advised fund is a way of giving to charity through which the donor can have tax benefits and keep a check on how much money is donated and where it is going, as stated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Greene has been a part of Alphabet, Inc. for a while now and also been a board member since 2012. Under the Bebop deal, the entrepreneur was named the Senior Vice President of Google’s cloud computing business in November. Currently the cloud computing business has been lagging behind Microsoft Corporation and Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud sectors, as they are the market leaders.  For years she has specialized in the area of selling cloud storage services and tech devices and she is doing the same for Google by selling these products to larger organizations.

A cloud executive, Urs Holzle who works alongside with Ms. Greene has stated that the acquired technology will play a vital role in company’s enterprise IT offerings. At the time when the acquisition was announced Bebop Technologies had 39 employees and 76 investors, according to the filing presented on Monday. Some of the investors that have helped the startup out were Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital.

On the other hand, 2015 has been a good year for Google’s stock as it appreciated 45%, showed increased revenues as well as earnings. It turned out to be one of the most striking days for the tech giant. The next planned step for the company is penetrating into the virtual reality market with its Android VR along with Google Glass Gen2. Additionally, another segment on which the organization is going to keep its focus on is the monetization of YouTube, which is its best offering. The third attention is going to be given to the autonomous car sector – although these vehicles are not scheduled to be launched it 2016 but analysts predict it as one of the major revenue generators for the future.

Alphabet’s Share Buyback Program Significance

Alphabet announced a stock buyback when the company is sitting near all-time highs. Is this ever value-accretive

Alphabet Inc has been carrying forward major tasks in the industry and has not even stopped for a day to carry out what it was always meant to do, being the parent company of major subsidiaries like Google and other related companies. The giant has only recently made the much talked about release of the first quarter to be reported under the new name of the company, which created much of a stir right at that time in the market. Following the earnings, the company also announced that it will be initiating a new program under which it will be starting an authorized selling plan worth up to $5 billion where the sells will be bought back by the company on different platforms.

The repurchase plan for the Alphabet shares will be done only for the stock of the Class C ratings, and this buy back of the shares will start from the next quarter, which will be the first quarter of the new financial year. Analysts who have been keeping a close eye on the activities of the stock giant are of the opinion that this step is one plan that the giant should have taken over a long time back. This clearly shows that the buying back of shares will be taken very positively by the analysts once it starts off properly.

Back in 2014, the tech giant was seen to experience some massive difficulties on the different indexes in the market which are considered when a stock value of a company is to be determined. The indexes which lowered their ratings on Alphabet, which was back then Google business, were none other than S&P 500 along with Nasdaq Composite which also downgraded the giant based on the lack of a repurchase power of the shares. Analysts believe that this downgrade was for the investors to know that the growth of the company might come to a standstill at some point in time, clearly giving out some bearish sentiments to them to think about.

The software giant has been reporting a sustainable growth on the index for some time where its cash flow has also turned out to be quite over to healthier side, which does have a positive effect on the shareholders and investors but with the repurchase of shares, analysts believe that tech giant is going to do wonders in the industry, as it has clearly made its investors quite satisfied. This new plan has been announced by the CFO of the company, namely Ruth Porat.