Google's Schmidt to sell roughly 42 percent of stake

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt smiles during a rehearsal of his MacTaggart lecture speech for the Edinburgh International Television Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland August 26, 2011.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is selling roughly 42 percent of his stake in the Internet search company over the coming year, Google announced on Friday.

Schmidt will sell 3.2 million shares of Class A common stock through a stock trading plan, Google said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The plan, which Google said would give Schmidt "individual asset diversification and liquidity," allows Schmidt to spread trades out over a period of one year to reduce the market impact.

Schmidt, who served as Google's Chief Executive until 2011, currently owns roughly 7.6 million shares of Class A and Class B common stock. The shares represent 2.3 percent of Google's outstanding stock and roughly 8.2 percent of the voting power of Google's stock.

Shares of Google, which finished Friday's session at a new closing high of $785.37, were down $2.21 in after hours trading.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)