Google grows up: Co-founder Larry Page to take over as CEO

By Andy Goldberg Jan 21, 2011, 12:39 GMT

San Francisco - 'Adult supervision is no longer needed.'

That was the Twitter posting of Google chief Eric Schmidt Thursday, announcing the changing of the guard at the US web search giant, where co-founder Larry Page will take over the day-to-day operations of the as CEO.

The move, which will take place on April 4, will see Schmidt, 55, shunted to the role of executive chairman where he will focus on deals and external relations. Sergey Brin, the other co-founder, will focus on new products, Schmidt company said.

Google announced the changes in conjunction with a quarterly earnings report which showed the company continuing to grow at a rapid pace.

Google reported revenues of 8.44 billion dollars for the quarter ended December 31, 2010, an increase of 26 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2009. Net earnings rose 29 per cent from 1.97 billion dollars to 2.54 billion dollars as the company's long term investments in initiatives such as YouTube and the Android operating system began to bear fruit.

Schmidt took over as Google CEO in August 2001 after being recruited by Page and Brin. The young billionaires were in their mid-20's at the time and lacked the experience to run a major company such as Google, quipping that they needed the adult supervision of a veteran executive like Schmidt who had previously led the software firm Novell.

Thursday's announcement signified that Page now has the operational experience to go with his unquestioned intelligence to lead the pioneering technology company.

'We've been talking about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making for a long time,' said Schmidt in announcing the decision. 'By clarifying our individual roles we'll create clearer responsibility and accountability at the top of the company. In my clear opinion, Larry is ready to lead and I'm excited about working with both him and Sergey for a long time to come.'

Page credited Schmidt with running the company 'brilliantly' while keeping the 'headstrong founders' involved. 'Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him. His advice and efforts will be invaluable to me as I start in this new role,' he said. 'Google still has such incredible opportunity - we are only at the beginning and I can't wait to get started.'

Danny Sullivan, author of the blog SearchEngineLand, said the move was likely propelled by the twin desire of Page to take a more central role in his company together with Schmidt's desire to recede somewhat from such a public position.

'There's no doubt Google's probably overdue for a major management reorganization. The structures between the three have remained exactly the same over the past 10 years - which might as well be 100 years of internet time,' noted Sullivan. 'In that time, Google has transformed from a scrappy little underdog search engine into a massive advertising and technological powerhouse.'