Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Eric Schmidt Selling $335 Million in Shares

In the process of exiting Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) as CEO, Google released in a filing with the SEC that Schmidt will be selling close to 534,000 shares in the company, valued at about $335 million at this time. Schmidt will sell the shares over a period of a year.

As of December 31, 2010, Schmidt holds 9.2 million shares of Google, according to the SEC filing. As of the close of Thursday's market closing, Schmidt's holdings in Google were worth close to $5.8 billion.

In the filing, which was filed alongside their earnings report, Google said, "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. Using this trading plan, Eric can diversify his investment portfolio and can spread stock trades out over a period of one year to reduce market impact.

"Because this trading plan was established well in advance of a trade, it also helps avoid concerns about whether Eric had material, non-public information when he made a decision to sell his stock."

Also per the filing, Google said the plan is to have Schmidt lower his stake in the company by around 2.7 percent, to about 8.7 million shares. At that level Schmidt would retain a voting share of about 9.1 percent.

Google announced co-founder Larry Page will be replacing Schmidt as the CEO, while Schmidt will go on as Executive Chairman.