Jason Goldberg, the chief product officer of Xing, the European biz social network that Burda just bought a big stake in, is leaving the company with this deal, about 12 months after his social news startup Socialmedian was sold to the Germany-headquartered company. The Socialmedian sale price at that point was about $4 million in cash and stock, and a performance-based earn-out valued at between €500,000 and €2.5 million, payable over three years, which likely means Goldberg didn’t get much out of the earnout, understandable in a horrible economy like this. He tells me: “I am leaving amicably and as a shareholder,” which means some cash-out opportunities ahead. Goldberg will be moving back from Hamburg, Germany to New York City, where he was previously based. Prior to Socialmedian, he was the controversial co-founder and CEO of the well-funded jobs site Jobster.

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