Google founders give up on being the Warren Buffett of tech

Some current and former Google staff interpreted Pichai’s ascent as a sign of stronger corporate governance coming to the company’s nascent enterprises, making him 'the only sheriff in town'. — AP

The Google founders’ decision to step down ends a multiyear effort to turn their company into the Berkshire Hathaway of technology by embracing Warren Buffett’s hands-off management style.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin created the Alphabet Inc holding company in 2015 to give themselves more time to invest in new tech businesses and handed responsibility for Google to Sundar Pichai. The model was inspired by Buffett’s approach of allocating capital to disparate businesses and letting independent CEOs decide how to run the operations.