Larry Page Is Taking A Big Step Back At Google, And Sundar Pichai Is Getting A Lot More Responsibility

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Larry Page

Getty / Justin Sullivan

Google CEO Larry Page

Google is reorganizing its executive structure.

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Former Android and Chrome head Sundar Pichai will lead all of Google's core products.

CEO Larry Page taking a step back to focus on the "bigger picture," Re/Code's Kara Swisher and Liz Gannes report. Google sent an internal memo to employees this afternoon to explain the changes.

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Pichai will now head up research, search, maps, Google+, commerce and ads, and infrastructure, in addition to Android, Chrome, and Google Apps. The six executives leading each of those product areas will now report directly to Pichai instead of Page. YouTube, run by Susan Wojcicki, will not be under Pichai's domain.

Re/Code's sources say that this switch-up seems to come from Page's concern that Google is becoming less innovative as it gets older. He wants to focus on the "bigger picture" and didn't feel like he could do that with so many direct reports and duties.

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This is a big promotion for Pichai, but certainly not his first. He's been a rising star at Google and Page's right-hand man for a while now. Originally, he only managed Chrome, but took over Google Apps in 2012 and Android in March 2013. He first started working at Google in 2004.