In a surprise announcement at Google's 4th quarter earnings review, Larry Page is to take over as CEO at Google in place of Eric Schmidt. The BBC reports that co-founder Page will take over the role in April and Schmidt - who has been in the job for a decade - will become executive chairman with a focus on "deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships".

The news upstaged the earnings report, which showed that Google had a strong rise in net profits in the last three months of 2010, at US$2.54bn on revenues of US$8.44bn. The profit figure also compares well to the $1.97bn made in the same quarter the year before. Although there will be much speculation about the change, it appears that Google timed the potentially unstabling news to come out at the same time as the positive financial figures.

The BBC report says that, in corporate terms, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have been 'grown-ups' for quite a while and now they are taking charge at the company that is rightfully theirs. Mr Schmidt said the management changes were part of a plan to "streamline" decision making and create clearer lines of responsibility and accountability.