The portfolio’s largest contributor during the quarter, Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), rose 17% on the back of strong operating results and an announced new corporate structure. The company’s core search and display business demonstrated healthy, accelerating organic revenue growth. The move to mobile search is helping Google, rather than hurting it as some bears had feared. YouTube is also performing well, as its average viewing session per user on a mobile device is over 40 minutes, up more than 50% year-over-year. Beginning in the fourth quarter, Alphabet Inc. will replace Google Inc. as the publicly-traded entity. Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet, and all outstanding Google shares will convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet. This means the company will report two segments—the search and YouTube core business and all other business lines. Management believes the new structure will allow for more management scale and accountability as each Alphabet subsidiary will have its own CEO. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Ruth Porat will remain in their same roles as CEO and Co-Founder, Co-Founder, and Chief Financial Officer.
From Mason Hawkins (Trades, Portfolio)' Longleaf Partners third quarter 2015 shareholder commentary.
