Google to become Alphabet Inc in surprise shakeup

Google is set to become Alphabet Inc in a shakeup of its operating structure.

The move is said to be so the search engine giant can concentrate on more creative projects such as its recent driverless cars.

Alphabet Inc will be a holding company containing subsidaries separating Google's core web advertising business from other ventures.

Since the surprise news was announced, Google shares went up as much as 7% to $708 (£454) after trading.

The company, which was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.

It has now grown to more than 40,000 employees worldwide and is worth over $360 billion.

Current CEO Page said: "This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google."

The change is due to take effect later in the year.