Larry Page, Google co-founder and CEO speaks during the opening keynote at the Google I/O developers conference. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Happy birthday, Alphabet. Three years ago Friday, Google co-founder and then-CEO Larry Page first announced the new corporate structure that separated Google's core businesses from its more experimental "Other Bets," including its health-care projects and venture capital arms. Page wrote at the time that splitting the company into various subsidiaries would allow Google-proper to focus, while pushing its Other Bets to be both more ambitious and financially accountable. Google could keep pumping out advertising profit while one of the Other Bets would hopefully, eventually become the next multibillion-dollar business. So far, the restructuring looks like a win financially. The stock price is up more than 85 percent and the Google side of the business has gone gangbusters, with quarterly revenues surging by more than $13 billion since the second quarter of 2015 under its new CEO, Sundar Pichai, while Page stays out of the public eye as the CEO of the larger Alphabet holding company. What's less clear looking back, however, is whether the new model has increased Other Bets innovation or slowed it down. Since the Alphabet announcement, the company has introduced a handful of new subsidiaries, sucked one back into Google, and even spun off several projects into independent companies outside of Alphabet. On this anniversary, here's a look at some of the challenges and benefits of Alphabet's soup:

To spin off or stay put?

Leadership challenges

At the time of the split, Page said that part of the Alphabet model is to have strong CEOs running each Other Bet. Then, about a year after Alphabet's formation, a string of key executives left the company. As one former Other Bets executive described it to CNBC, the structure can be grating for leaders who are CEOs in title, but still dependent on the real CEO — Page — for financials and big-picture approvals. For example, Access, the division which houses Alphabet's Fiber internet efforts, was once one of the company's most audacious projects, but it has been significantly scaled back under Alphabet in both ambition and budget. A former Access executive told CNBC that the tightening of the purse strings wasn't directed by Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, but due to decreased interest from the founders. "Beware their changing whims," this person said. Although Alphabet companies are separate, the powers of their CEOs aren't equal to what they'd be at truly independent companies. The compromise clearly hasn't mattered to all of the Other Bets CEOs — several have retained the same leaders since the split. And there have been successes: Investments from Alphabet's venture arms are paying off, life sciences company Verily seems to be chugging along (it gets highlighted for reeling in revenue alongside Access during earnings calls), and the research lab X recently launched two new companies — Wing, which makes delivery drones, and Loon, which makes high-altitude balloons that deliver internet access to the ground. But, still, it's easy to argue that these days, working on a non-Google project at Alphabet isn't as sexy as it used to be.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Alphabet CEO Larry Page Reuters | Getty Images

Freedom for Page