Larry Page will take over on April 4th, Schmidt will remain as Chairman of the Board.
As part of its earnings report today, Google announced that CEO Eric Schmidt would resign his role as Chief Executive to focus on his Chairman role.
Larry Page will take over as CEO while Sergey Brin’s title will change to Co-Founder.
In a post on the company blog, Schmidt laid out the new arrangement:
Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.
Sergey has decided to devote his time and energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. His title will be Co-Founder. He’s an innovator and entrepreneur to the core, and this role suits him perfectly.
As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.
Also, Eric Schmidt just tweeted that “adult supervision was no longer needed.” related to Sergey Brin’s comment on Charlie Rose that Schmidt was brought on to bring “adult supervision”.
Schmidt has been criticized recently for his poor public relations skills. Don’t feel too bad for the guy, he’s got a $344 million payday coming.
