Midway Interim CEO Booty Gets Official Role

Midway says that Matt Booty, who's been the company's "interim" CEO since March, is now official, appointed by the company's Board to the role of president and CEO today. The company says Booty's permanent appointment is credited to his success at key company initiatives including "reducing costs through studio consolidation, exiting underperforming licenses and rebalancing the product portfolio to focus on key licenses and owned intellectual property such as TNA iMPACT!, Blitz: The League, Mortal Kombat and Wheelman." Booty has been with the company since 1991, when he joined as an engineer and programmer, gradually gaining in responsibility to take the role of VP of product development in 2002 and later, senior VP of Worldwide Studios. Booty takes the reins during a challenging time for Midway, which has seen its value plummet 67 percent on the year. Amid these losses, the company has implemented fairly aggressive cost-cutting measures, most recently jettisoning its "underperforming" licenses to focus on its key IP. The company also recently sold $40 million in accounts receivables to National Amusements to fund their holiday titles in a recently-announced factoring agreement. Widespread media reports suggest that support from National Amusements has been necessary just to keep the embattled publisher afloat. "Over the past two quarters we have made progress reducing costs, realigning our studios, and improving execution on our game launches," Booty said in a company statement. "Along with the rest of our management team, I am committed to continuing to drive this progress and maintain a sharp focus on the successful implementation of our plans for the fourth quarter and beyond."