IGA Co-Founder Bartlett Departs In-Game Ad Firm

Ed Bartlett, VP of Europe for in-game ad firm IGA Worldwide announced today that he has left the company to pursue "new challenges." Bartlett became co-founder of IGA Worldwide when he sold his agency, Hive Partners, to IGA in 2004. He helped IGA raise its initial $17 million in venture capital as the in-game ad market was receiving much attention from the press and game companies. "With new funding in place and signs of a resurgence in the advertising market, the company is extremely well placed to capitalize on renewed industry confidence and market growth," said Bartlett in a statement. "I'm now looking forward to exploring a number of exciting new challenges in gaming and beyond." Bartlett's departure comes after IGA said in August that it conducted a "significant" round of funding, landing the company an undisclosed amount of capital. A year and a half prior, the company was considering buyout bids amid an advertising downturn. Bartlett was most recently responsible for IGA’s day-to-day operations across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Poland. Earlier this year, Microsoft said that it would shut down its in-game ad unit Massive, and redeploy the technology to Microsoft's first-party advertising business. Microsoft acquired the firm in 2006 for a reported $200 to $400 million price tag.