Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin resign as CEOs

It’s the end of an internet era as Sergei Brin and Larry Page are stepping down as head of Alphabet, Google‘s parent company, and ceding management control to Sundar Pichai who will take over as CEO.

Page and Sergey Brin, who co-founded Google more than two decades ago while graduate students at Stanford University, will continue as members of Alphabet’s board of directors and still exercise considerable sway over the company as its two largest individual shareholders.

The surprise news from one of the world’s most powerful technology companies comes as Google has been rocked by criticism from Washington lawmakers and President Trump, growing scrutiny from regulators, rising competition from Amazon.com, internal scandals and unrest within its own ranks.

Saying it’s a “natural time to simplify our management structure,” Page and Brin said Google and its parent company no longer need “two CEOs and a president.”

“We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company,” the duo wrote in a letter announcing their decision.