FUNDING: IGA consideres buyout

In-game advertising firm IGA Worldwide may seek a buyout if it can't successfully close a new round of funding. Chairman Justin Townsend is believed to favor the new funding deal, but won't rule out a sale of the company, according to VC-related news site VentureBeat. According to the site, any interested buyers must register their bids by March 27th. IGA has high-profile deals with publishers such as Sony, EA and Activision, and announced its 30 millionth unique user in October of last year. However, the general downturn in advertising budgets forced IGA to lay off 25 percent of its staff in November, and they needed to create a new business model.