Roy Bahat, the president of NewsCorp.'s gaming arm IGN Entertainment, has vacated his position.
He made the announcement via an email to the company's employees on Friday, categorizing his decision as a "difficult choice" that was arrived at '[a]fter a lot of thought."
Bahat, who will remain on IGN's board, offered a semi-cryptic explanation for his departure.
"So why am I leaving?," Bahat wrote. "It has become clear that now is the time to refresh the process of looking at strategic options for this business."
IGN Entertainment CFO David Martin will serve as acting president of the company as it "continues on its path of exploring strategic options for the future," Bahat said.
Bahat joined IGN Entertainment in 2007, two years after the company was acquired by NewsCorp. for approximately $650 million. According to the Los Angeles Times, NewsCorp. has been trying to find an outside investor in order to spin off the property for a year, and the inability to do so prompted Bahat to move on.
The company, which comprises numerous gaming and other male-oriented websites such as TeamXbox and AskMen, sold off its Game Spy Technology, a suite of tools, software and services for the computer and videogame industry, to Glu Mobile earlier this month.
Bahat laid out his post-IGN plans in his farewell message, describing a mixture of recreation and entrepreneurship.
"I’m going to start by taking a couple months to hang out with my family, then continue on my slow attempt to learn to code, maybe help out with a few startups here and there…," he wrote.
