From January, up until this week, it may have seemed as if Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG,NASDAQ:GOOGL) were emerging out of its recent slump. During this timeframe, GOOG stock rallied by more than 20%.
Last month’s layoff news may have been a big reason for this, but renewed hopes that the tech giant is not falling behind in areas such as artificial intelligence (or A.I.) chatbots likely played some role as well. Unfortunately, these hopes have been dashed.
After weeks of anticipation, Alphabet has finally unveiled its own chatbot platform. Unimpressed with the company’s plan to counter potential competition to its cash-cow Search unit, shares have pulled back in response.
While some may view this as an overreaction, the market is likely right on the money. If that’s not bad enough, this latest sell-off may not necessarily be a “one-and-done” event.
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