Google unveiled a surprise shakeup of its top management on Thursday, announcing that co-founder Larry Page would replace Eric Schmidt as chief executive of the Internet giant in April.
Schmidt, who has served as Google's high-profile CEO for a decade, would remain with the Mountain View, California-based company as executive chairman, focusing on partnerships, customers and government outreach, Google said.
Schmidt will also act as an advisor to Page, who served as CEO previously, from 1998 to 2001, and Google's other co-founder, Sergey Brin, Google said in a statement.
Google said Brin, also will work on strategic projects and new products, what he described in a conference call with financial analysts as his "personal passions." Google said the management changes would take effect on April 4.
The unexpected shakeup in the "triumvirate" at the top at Google overshadowed the company's announcement of its fourth quarter results. Google said net profit rose to $2.54 billion in the fourth quarter from $1.97 billion in the same quarter a year ago while revenue climbed 26 percent to $8.44 billion over a year ago.
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