Google is one of the largest and most profitable tech firms on the planet. The company has its tentacles in so many different areas that it can be hard to keep up. The firm may have started as a web search company, but it has grown into much more than that.

Google announced last week that Eric Schmidt would be stepping down from his spot as the CEO of the company and would be replaced by co-founder Larry Page. Reuters reports that Schmidt will be given a $100 million equity award as he steps down from the helm of Google. The award will be granted in the form of stock and options that will vest over four years and is the first award that Schmidt has been given since he came to Google back in 2001.

Schmidt will become the executive chairman of Google after he vacates the CEO spot. Google announced Schmidt would be stepping down at the same time it announced its earnings. The earnings were better than expectations and most were surprised that Schmidt was vacating his post as CEO.

Reuters reports that Schmidt stated in an interview that the move was an effort to speed up the decision-making within the company. Schmidt has also drafted a plan to sell some of the stock he holds in the company. The news surfaced in a regulatory filing last week.

"The pre-arranged trading plan was adopted in order to allow Eric to sell a portion of his Google stock as part of his long-term strategy for individual asset diversification and liquidity," the filing said.

Schmidt holds 9.2 million shares of Google stock and has 9.6% of the company's voting power according to Reuters. He plans to sell 534,000 shares of Class A common stock -- the stock closed at $611.83 on NASDAQ Friday.