Google Co-Founders Page, Brin Give Up Management Roles

Google’s co-founders stepped down from their active management roles at the internet giant, surrendering further control at a potential inflection point for the company. Billionaires Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who had been chief executive and president, respectfully, of Google parent Alphabet Inc., said they would hand control immediately to Sundar Pichai, Google’s existing CEO. The duo are hardly giving up their influence. They remain on Alphabet’s board and together control a majority of voting power over company decisions under Alphabet’s dual-class share structure.

Page and Brin founded Google in 1998, and built it from a novel search engine into a global conglomerate that controls how most of the world interacts with the internet. They also created an often-restless and freewheeling corporate culture that pushed the company into far-flung ventures, including driverless cars and high-altitude balloons, but of late has been challenged to match prior growth.