Goggle Bombshell: Larry Page Takes Over as CEO from Eric Schmidt

Google Inc co-founder Larry Page is taking over as Google CEO from Eric Schmidt, a surprise bombshell dropped today that signaled the powerful internet search engine may be trying to address the forward progress of rivals such as Twitter and Facebook.

Eric Schmidt will leave as Google CEO on April 4 to make way for Larry Page. Page created the company with fellow Stanford University alumnus Sergey Brin in 1998.

Google has been the world's most dominant search engine for decades but is in danger of losing traffic to social media giants Facebook and Twitter.

"Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!" Schmidt said on Twitter right after the announcement.

"Larry is ready. It's time for him to have a shot at running this," Schmidt told analysts on a conference call.

Google shares rose about 2 percent on the news.

Just days ago, Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs announced a leave of absence as the company named Tim Cook CEO.

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News of the change that put Larry Page in as CEO came as Google reported a 29 percent increase in both net profit and revenue.