The co-founders of search engine Google will see their voting shares in the company fall from 59 per cent to 48 per cent.
The founders of search engine giant Google are set to lose their majority share in the company in a forthcoming sell-off of shares.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page's voting shares in the firm are set to fall from 59 per cent to 48 per cent during the next five years, according to a regulatory filing made on January 22nd.
It is thought the move will see the pair earn $5.5 billion (£3.4 billion) at the current price of $550 a share. According to the BBC, the sale will be completed over a five-year period to avoid having a negative impact on Google's stock price.
Despite the fact that Mr Page and Mr Brin will lose majority control over the search engine, a spokeswoman commented that they will both remain "as committed as ever to Google".
According to PC Pro, Google senior management will "still remain firmly at the wheel" despite the change, as chief executive Eric Schmidt still holds ten per cent voting power.
The search engine also introduced a number of improvements last week, including Rich Snippets and Google Squared - which formats search results in columns and tables.
Information week noted that while the changes are not new - similar technology is used by Microsoft's Bing search engine - they are likely to be welcomed by users.
