Neglecting the standard mysterious departure-accompanying explanation “I’d like to spend more time with my family,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced he’s stepping aside to make way for Google co-founder Larry Page, who will take over April 4.

Page and Sergey Brin started the company in the late 1990s when the duo were grad students at Stanford. Schmidt was installed as CEO in 2001.

Schmidt, who will become the lowly executive chairman, writes on the Official Google Blog:

So Larry, Sergey and I have been talking for a long time about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making–and over the holidays we decided now was the right moment to make some changes to the way we are structured.

What obviously happened here is that the three played a game of rock paper scissors, and Schmidt was the only one who chose rock, forgetting that Stanford dudes are partial to paper.

Or maybe it was something else. What’s your guess as to why Google changed top dogs?

An update from the chairman [Official Google Blog]

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