Another bombshell in what’s proven to be a big week of revelations in leading technology companies and their CEO’s, Google’s Eric Schmidt announced that he was stepping down as CEO and turning the reins over to founder Larry Page. Schmidt will continue on in Google as Executive Chairman and will apparently work on strengthening external partnerships and possibly new acquisitions.
“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,” Schmidt explained. He added that “adult supervision is no longer needed,’ alluding to the maturity and readiness of Google’s duo of Page and Brin to take Google to the next level.
Schmidt was brought in to Google in 2001 where he became CEO to the company and mentor to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin who needed an experienced and adult presence to help guide the two founders. Since then, Google was run as a triumvirate with each of the three personalities giving equal weight to many of the search giant’s decisions. Google began in 1996 as a research project that grew in scale as a challenger to Yahoo’s search service.
Under Schmidt’s leadership, Google has dominated the internet search and online advertising market while expanding into a variety of new projects most notable of which are their Android smartphone OS and the purchase of YouTube which is the Internet’s de facto video service. Google is currently estimated to be worth $163.2 billion as of late 2010.
On his new board level position and leadership change within Google, Schmidt said: “We’ve been talking about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision-making for a long time. 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.”
