Founders leave as Google gets caught up in antitrust lens

San Francisco: Google’s cofounders are relinquishing their executive positions just as state and federal regulators, not to mention the Department of Justice and Congress, are taking a keen interest in the possible abuse of its privacy practices and market power. But their long foreshadowed successor, Sundar Pichai, has been well prepped to serve as the public face of the company.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped down as CEO and president, respectively, of Google parent company Alphabet. The move caps more than two decades during which the pair have shepherded the one-time startup they founded in a Silicon Valley garage. Pichai, who has been Google’s CEO since 2015, will now also head up Alphabet. The company isn’t filling Brin’s position as president.