A familiar face is returning to the top spot at professional networking site LinkedIn. Chief executive Dan Nye is leaving the company, while founder Reid Hoffman (pictured) is taking his place.

The official line, according to the Los Angeles Times, is that the shuffle was brought on by hiring Google executive Dipchand "Deep" Nishar to take over product strategy, a role previously held by Hoffman. It’s hard to believe that’s the full story - why the heck would hiring a vice president of product cause the CEO to step down? We haven’t been able to speak to LinkedIn yet, but Hoffman sent us a short email saying the switch was planned.

It’s also hard to see Hoffman’s return to the lead position as completely positive. He’s a respected entrepreneur, but there’s a reason why founders usually keep the CEO office as their companies grow. The last time a prominent founder returned to serve as CEO was Jerry Yang at Yahoo, and that didn’t turn out so well. LinkedIn may be grooming Yahoo’s Jeff Weiner, who was just brought on as LinkedIn’s president, to eventually take over. (Some say Weiner has a mixed record at Yahoo.)