Eric Schmidt Steps Down as Google CEO, Larry Page Takes the Reins

Breaking news from the Google Fourth Quarter Earnings announcement is that Eric Schmidt is stepping down from his position as CEO of the world’s largest search engine and co-founder Larry Page will be taking his place.

Details are a little on the sketchy side right now, but it seems like there is a shakeup at the top of Google, with Schmidt moving to an “Excecutive Chairman” role. Co-founder Sergey Brin will be dedicating his time to “strategic projects”, primarily developing new products. From Schmidt’s statement, it seems that this reshuffle is part of their new strategy of “creating clearer lines of accountability and responsibility at the top of the company.”

Schmidt stated that he feels Page is “ready to lead” and that he is looking forwards to working with the founders for many years to come.

I’ll post an update when more information becomes available. I’d be particularly interested in hearing about how – if at all – any of you think this will affect SEO.