Google turns Page on Schmidt, names co-founder CEO
When Google Inc. went public in 2004, the three men running the company promised each other they would remain a ruling triumvirate for at least 20 more years.
Although their commitment to work together until 2024 hasn't changed, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are being reassigned in an attempt to recapture the free-wheeling spirit of the company's youth.
The surprise shake-up announced late Thursday will return Page, 37, to the CEO job he filled in Google's early days. The move ends Schmidt's decade-long reign in a position that also stamped him as the "adult supervisor" of a company that once seemed like a romper room filled with technological wunderkinds.
Schmidt, 55, will stay on as executive chairman. The new role turns him into Page's consigliere as well as a liaison for Google's business partners and government officials.
Brin, also 37, will be freed up to work on pet projects aimed at expanding Google's empire.
The changes take effect April 4, leaving the current hierarchy intact through the current quarter.
