Burge leaves the cinema advertising network Screenvision which he established in the US in 1999. Screenvision has a market share of over 50% in the States and is a leader in global cinema advertising. Burge held the roles of Finance Director and Chief Operating Officer at the advertising firm.
Prior to Screenvision, Burge worked for two years as Finance Director at Carlton Screen Advertising a Carlton Communications company. At MIVA Burge will once again work alongside Adam Poulter who also worked at Carlton and is currently MD for UK and Europe.
"I believe MIVA is an innovative media business in a growing sector with a strong, entrepreneurial leadership team, making this an extremely exciting opportunity. My aim is to apply my experience in leading businesses to help drive the next phase in the company's development," commented Burge.
At the start of the year MIVA appointed Deutsche Bank Securities to explore a number of options for the search engine. A statement issued by the search engine at the time noted, "the raising of capital through the sale of securities or assets of the company, a recapitalization, strategic acquisitions, and the combination, sale or merger of the business with another entity offering strategic opportunities for growth," and speculation that the company was for sale rose.
MIVA confirmed that a sale was possible. Chairman Craig Pisaris-Henderson told news site ClickZ that, "A sale is an option, but there are plenty of other options we're looking at too," and "We're looking at a range of opportunities, the bottom line being to see how we can enhance or increase shareholder value. We've built these tremendous assets on a global basis, and we don't believe that value is being reflected in the marketplace."
MIVA settled a patent dispute with Yahoo Search Marketing in August 2005, paying the Yahoo $8 million in to drop the case. MIVA agreed to pay an undisclosed ongoing fee in order to continue to use bid-for-placement technology.
MIVA has recently launched a pay-per-click offering which allows in-line links to be highlighted with a floating advert when the reader's mouse cursor moves over it.
