> My question is, what does "slimmed down" Google mean?

It means Google minus all the parts that are now their own direct subsidiaries of Alphabet.

Which, previously, were all part of Google. Hence, "slimmed down".

A lot of things they were getting in to like cars just didn't fit.

It's going to remove the 'is this a thing Google should be getting in to?' question when evaling ventures/acquisitions.

I wonder where platforms (the HW company inside of Google that builds all their machines and switches) ends up. If they make it their own 'letter' (H is for Hardware?) then they could potentially have it build data center hardware for other companies. That would be interesting.

Related to my response to another one of your comments, this would be a VERY Samsung move; I don't know if they'll do it, though. Depends if they see their infrastructure hardware more as a competitive advantage for their internet-services business or as a marketable product in itself.

Per the SEC 8-K, technical infrastructure falls into Google proper.

> My question is, what does "slimmed down" Google mean?

It looks like they're taking all the experimental research stuff out of Google and making them direct subsidiaries of Alphabet instead, particularly projects that aren't directly related to the Internet.

The article talked about Life Sciences and Calico, and I have to wonder if other stuff like the self-driving cars are going to become direct Alphabet subsidiaries as well (then again, maybe not: I assume the self-driving cars are tied closely to Google Maps).

Google X as a whole is going to become an Alphabet subsidiary; presumably if that takes off it will get spun off into its own Alphabet company.

A more focused company that's moving to the top level of this hierarchy is Nest.

I think in this case it just means the new slimmed-down Google won't include X, Calico, Wing, etc...

I think it just means the Google division will no longer contain the parts that have been spun off. There may be others but from the announcement that looks like: Life Sciences, Calico, Ventures and Capital, and X lab. Later on in the announcement they call Google "slightly slimmed down" which seems like a bit of an understatement.

Presumably they hope that something outside of the new google division will blow up and make the divisions a bit less lopsided.

Remember the "more wood behind fewer arrows"? That's slim Google. Alphabet is Larry & Sergey missing the more arrows.

> what does "slimmed down" Google mean?

Hopefully less likely to run afoul of antitrust regulation.

Less employees is how I interpret it. Lay-offs.

I have no reason to suspect this, that's just how I usually interpret wording like that.