EARLIER TODAY we wrote about a vice president who left and now drops another bomb (more here).

Live Search GM leaving Microsoft

We've confirmed another notable leadership change in Microsoft's online business: Live Search general manager Brad Goldberg is headed for the door. But don't add his name to the short list for Yahoo CEO. Goldberg is leaving to become chief executive of the online business at the Peak6 investment company.

Lots of Microsoft executives seem to end up inside shells like patent trolls or companies that may change the agenda in F/OSS companies.

Peak6 might be in the process of 'Microsoftification'. From a Netcraft query on their Web site:

Performance Systems International Inc. 1015 31st Street, NW Washington DC 20007 US	38.98.137.6
Windows Server 2003	Microsoft-IIS/6.0	29-Nov-2008





ViaWest Internet Services, Inc. 1444 Wazee St Ste 215 Denver CO US 80204	64.78.153.5
Linux	Apache-Coyote/1.1	11-Jul-2008





ViaWest Internet Services, Inc. 1444 Wazee St Ste 215 Denver CO US 80204	64.78.153.5
Linux	Apache-Coyote/1.1	5-Dec-2007





Peak 6 141 W. Jackson Blvd. Suite 500 Chicago IL US 60604	66.54.247.6
Windows 2000	Microsoft-IIS/5.0	30-Mar-2005





EnterAct 407 South Dearborn 6th Floor Chicago IL 60605 US	207.229.128.89
FreeBSD	Apache/1.3.20 Unix	18-Feb-2002

We have not studied Peak6 properly, but maybe there's more to this story and this company. ⬆

Update: (18/12/08) This is apparently the man responsible for the notorious 'search briberies', which made a lot of people very angry [1, 2, 3].

Brad Goldberg, general manager for Live Search, has reportedly become the latest online executive to quit the company. Goldberg, who's joining investment-firm Peak 6, apparently launched Microsoft's Live Search cash-back programs and is the latest executive to leave Microsoft's online business.