Eric Schmidt and New Google CEO Larry Page Discuss Q4 Earnings

TechCrunch live-blogged the Google earnings call that took place today after an unexpected announcement that Eric Schmidt would be stepping down as the company's CEO on April 4. He will be replaced by co-founder Larry Page.

Eric Schmidt: Thanks everyone for getting on our call. We jumped on to talk about the other announcement this afternoon. We had a very strong quarter and year. Our outlook is very bright. Larry, Sergey and I have spent a long time talking about how to run things. But we thought about how to run things even better. After discussions, we decided to change things. We've been doing it one way, but we think this way will be better. Larry will run things day-to-day, I'll be elevated. And Sergey will do what he does best.

Larry Page: I want to congratulate Eric. He's done a great job this past decade. We're all in great debt to him. The results speak for themselves. No one in the universe could have done what he's done. I've learned so much from him. His role going forward will be invaluable. This is an incredible oppotunity. People thought when we started that we were too late. Too many other search engine, etc. We're only at the beginning now.

Sergey Brin: I'd like to mention that I've had a great time working with Larry now for 15 years and Eric for a decade. Both of them have inspired and moved me. I would like to work more on my personal passions. There will be several new products I'm working on. I've been accused of vaporware recently, so I won't talk about them yet. But soon.

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