Professor David Larcker provides historical context on holding company structures in an article discussing Google’s announced restructuring as Alphabet.

SAN FRANCISCO — Google was founded as a company that did Internet search. Over time, it has broadened into areas as varied as drones, pharmaceuticals and venture capital, none of which make much money, and some of which have spooked investors.

Now Google is listening to Wall Street, while also trying to keep its innovation going. The Silicon Valley behemoth is reorganizing under a new name — Alphabet — and separating its moneymaking businesses from the moonshot ones.

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Yet the move raises questions, including how Alphabet will dole out money for more speculative projects and what this means for Google’s regulatory and legal issues, like its antitrust battle in Europe. David Larcker, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, said a holding company was a complicated structure that Wall Street had lately frowned upon. Most recently, investors pushed General Electric to spin out its finance unit after the business, which had long raised profits, became a drag on the company after the 2008 financial crisis.