The basic reason given for the announcement is that Page is ready, or as Schmidt's own tweet reported, "Day-to-day adult supervision no longer needed!." Here's what Schmidt's blog post reads:
For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.
Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.
Reading between the lines, this blogger thinks the rise of Mark Zuckerberg, right in Google's San Francisco Bay Area Silicon Valley backyard, has a lot to do with it. In other words, the move is pure and simple Mark Zuckerberg envy.
Look, every entrepreneur, from awful ones like myself to great ones like Steve Jobs, want to be known as the face of their product. And that desire is increased manyfold when the product is something you made by, in this case, programming hand. That's true for Google, for Apple, and for Facebook, and while far less so for Yahoo, which Co-Founder Jerry Yang allowed to spin so far beyond its original identity it may be impossible for it to recover, it's still basically so.
It's ego.
Larry Page wants to be seen as the face of his company Google again. When we think of Facebook, we think of Mark Zuckerberg. Period. That was true before The Social Network, and its more true today after the success of the movie. Google has no such flick about its formation and its early years. Moreover, Facebook has grown faster than Google has over an equivalent amount of time, and is now equal in Internet influence to Google. It's only a matter of time before Facebook extends its reach into consumer electronics.
All of this is Mark Zuckerberg.
While Larry and Sergey share duties with Eric Schmidt, Zuckerberg calls the shot in a business staff that's part friends, part family, and certainly more compact. Over this time, the triplets of Larry, Sergey, and Eric have done some extraordinary things with Google. But over that same time, the "face" of Google was more Eric than Larry or Sergey.
Now, in a full nod to Mark Zuckerberg, who calls the shots at Facebook, Larry Page's calling the shots at Google. Round One of this epic Internet business cage match has begun.
Stay tuned.