In a surprise announcement Tuesday, Sergey Brin and Larry Page said they were stepping down from their leadership positions at Alphabet, the overarching conglomerate that owns Google, Waymo and a host of other tech companies.

Brin and Page, who famously co-founded Mountain View-based Google in 2004 and grew it into a $790 billion tech giant, said they were handing over their responsibilities to Sundar Pichai, who will serve as CEO of both Google and Alphabet. Brin previously served as Alphabet president and Page as CEO after it was formed in 2015.

In a company blog post announcing the news on Dec. 3, both Google founders gave little insight as to why they were stepping away from their executive roles at Alphabet. Since Alphabet is now well-established, they said it made sense to "simplify" the management structure.

"We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company," the company blog post said. "And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a president.

Brin and Page said they would continue to remain involved in the company as Alphabet board members.