Published with permission from Business Insider.

Eric Schmidt is stepping down as CEO of Google, and Larry Page is taking, over the company just announced in its earnings release.

Schmidt will become Executive Chairman focused on, “deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership,” the company says.

Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, will take a more active role in strategic projects including product.

Eric Schmidt just joked about the switch on Twitter, saying, “Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!”

In a blog post explaining the move, Schmidt says, “managing the business has become more complicated,” and Google wanted to “speed up decision making.”

This news came out of nowhere, as reflected in the stocks movement after-hours. It spiked on strong earnings, then fell back, and is now up around 1%. Investors, along with the rest of the tech world are trying to make sense of the news.

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