End of an era as Google founders step down from parent company

Larry Page and Sergey Brin have handed over control of Alphabet to Sundar Pichai

Twenty-one years after founding Google in a messy garage in Menlo Park, California, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have stepped down from day-to-day management of the company to assume the role of "proud parents - offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!"

Page and Brin's decision to hand over control of Google, and its parent company Alphabet, to long-standing lieutenant Sundar Pichai is the end of an era for the search engine giant, which had been built in their image and followed their personal values.