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News just is: As Google released their Q4 financial figures today it was also announced that Eric Schmidt will be replaced by Google Co-founder Larry Page as CEO of the Internet giant. Yes…this is no less than a huge surprise that no one saw coming.

Google is currently jostling to get Chrome OS ready for ‘prime time’ and such news is bound to worry a lot of people who have been following the development of Google’s first ever cloud operating system. It’ll be interesting to see how Larry leads the ever more bouyant Google, with products such as Android (tablets) and Chrome OS taking center stage this year.

Here is a small except from Techcrunch from the Live announcement:

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.

ES: Focus on more external issue. I believe Larry is ready. His ideas are interesting and clever. It’s time for him to have a shot at running this. A decade goes fast. I’m quite sure this partnership will continue. I don’t anticipate any material change. I do believe now we’ll execute even better.