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After rumors of David Cole's dismissal from Redmond proved correct, another Microsoftie contended for and lost the competition for Cole's position as head of MSN Global.

When you're the head of MSN Global Sales and Marketing, is there anywhere to go but up? Reportedly, Michael Rawding thought so, but his aspirations for Cole's old office and position atop the MSN fiefdom have proven fruitless.

The LiveSide forums, a very unofficial home for news about Microsoft, noted Rawding's departure in a posting today:

According to sources close to the company, it seems that Michael Rawding, Head of MSN Global Sales & Marketing worldwide has also decided to take gardening leave because he failed to get Cole's job.

This follows from the Microsoft reorganisation last year that saw MSN partnered with the Windows client team. Worryingly, we're told this isn't likely to be the end of the management cull that is attempting to make MSN more competitive with Google. The question is, will there be any execs left over at MSN by the end of this year?
MSN has seen Windows Live gain more attention from Microsoft's top executives and a lot of the company's developers. They folded MSN Virtual Earth into Windows Live Local, which likely removed the most compelling product with the MSN brand name from MSN.

Staying on with the rumor mill for a moment, the chattering blog Valleywag dubbed MSN senior VP, Information Services, Yusuf Mehdi as the next candidate for a "sabbatical" after Cole. For the moment, only Rawding's departure has been discussed.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.