Redmond, Washington — While Microsoft continues adding up some big names from Yahoo’s search business, its own house is going through difficult times, as the company’s Live Search General Manager, Brad Goldberg is leaving Redmond to work for the Peak6 investment company, Techflash reports.
According to reports from TechFlash, Goldberg will become CEO of the online business at Chicago-based Peak6 Investments.
Microsoft confirmed the report through its public relations firm Wednesday, stating that Goldberg is leaving the company to pursue other interests, and his departure is amicable and that the company wished him well.
Goldberg has reportedly become the latest executive from Microsoft’s online services to leave the company in the wake of the announcement of former Yahoo executive Qi Lu as the new leader of the struggling Online Services Group (OSG), which is the division generating the least revenue at Microsoft.
Goldberg, who is leaving to become chief executive of the online investment-firm Peak 6, has in fact started out Microsoft’s Live Search cash-back programs and is the latest to depart from Microsoft’s online business.
Goldberg becomes the third senior online exec to leave Microsoft recently. Earlier this week, senior advertising sales exec and 15-year Microsoft veteran Bill Shaughnessy announced its departure from the company for points unknown. Shaughnessy, will leave in March.
Before assuming position in sales, Shaughnessy was general manager for MSN’s communications services including Hotmail, Messenger, and Spaces in addition to doing Windows marketing.
Earlier this month when Microsoft brought in former Yahoo Search Guru Qi Lu to take over as its new online head, Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group, will transition out of Microsoft in the next several months. McAndrews was CEO of digital advertising and services firm aQuantive, which Microsoft acquired for US$6 billion in 2007.
That important position became vacant after Kevin Johnson left in July to become chief executive of Juniper Networks, sparking a Microsoft re-organization. It is rumored that McAndrews felt he was inline to take Johnson’s former position.
McAndrews and Shaughnessy reportedly worked together very closely.
However, Microsoft did confirm that replacing Goldberg early in 2009 will be Microsoft veteran Mike Nichols, who has most recently on the strategic partnerships team in OSG and before that worked in search engineering, would replace Goldberg as GM of Live Search effective Jan, the report said.
Prior to taking up his position for running Microsoft’s Live Search business, Goldberg was a manager on the Windows client team. While he led the search business, Microsoft initiated key strategies to build out its online advertising strategy to compete with Google, which continues to take the lion’s share of the search-driven online advertising market.
Among those initiatives is Live Search Cash-Back program, a way to give consumers discounts for products purchased online if they discover those products using Live Search.
Goldberg also headed the team as it planned a re-branding of Live Search to the name “Kumo,” something that Microsoft has not confirmed but that is widely expected to take place next year. Microsoft has filed to trademark the Kumo name in the U.S. for its search engine and other software and services, and also has purchased kumo.com and related domain names.
Later Wednesday morning, a Microsoft representative provided this statement:
We can confirm that Brad Goldberg has decided to leave Microsoft to pursue an opportunity outside the company. Mike Nichols, another Microsoft veteran, will take over as General Manager for Live Search product management effective January 1. We are pleased to welcome Mike to the team and wish Brad the very best in his new role.
In addition to departures in OSG, Microsoft also confirmed earlier this week that James Hamilton, a key architect of its expanding data-center strategy, has left to become a vice president and distinguished engineer at rival Amazon Web Services.
Representatives of Peak6 did not immediately return a request Wednesday to confirm that Goldberg is joining the firm.
However, for the time being, the latest Microsoft online management shuffle is considered as a good thing. The company’s online presence has been a hodgepodge of disparate brands and services for far too long. So, if incoming chief Lu really wish to reform things from the ground up, the people behind the old way of doing things cannot stand in his way.
Microsoft was unavailable for comment.