Yahoo Video Head Erin McPherson Heads for Maker Studios, the Giant YouTube Network

Maker has a big video audience, and bigger goals.

Former Maker Studios CEO Danny Zappin Buys a News Site That Covers Topics Like Danny Zappin

A YouTube trade publication gets an owner who knows the YouTube business quite intimately.

Web Video Players Alloy Digital and Break Media Get Bigger by Getting Together

Dude + dude = a chance to build a bigger dude business outside of YouTube.

Another Big-Money Bet on YouTube, as Maker Raises $26 Million More

One of the biggest players on YouTube gets money to get bigger — on and off the site.
tv money

Maker Studios Finishes Buying Blip, and Looks for New Pile of Money

Purchase price: Not very much.
pewdiepie

Maker Studios Buys Blip, and a Home Outside of YouTube (Update)

Maker has a lot of eyeballs on the world’s biggest video site. But it wants to move some of them off YouTube, too. Here’s a start.

Move Over, Rihanna. Meet PewDiePie, YouTube’s Biggest Star.

He doesn’t sing, dance, or do much more than play videogames. But this 23-year-old Swede is the most popular person on the world’s biggest video site.

News Byte

Former News Corp Digital Exec Jon Miller Joins Shari Redstone’s Advancit as Partner

Former News Corp digital head Jon Miller has joined Advancit Capital as a partner. Advancit is an early-stage investment firm that was started two years ago by Shari Redstone and Jason Ostheimer; Redstone is the daughter of Sumner Redstone, director at CBS and Viacom, and president of National Amusements. Advancit has made several dozen investments over two years, many in the online media and entertainment arenas, including Maker Studios, Oyster and Circa. In 2011, a regulatory filing noted that the venture firm had raised $3.2 million. Miller — who used to work at Viacom, where he met Redstone — is the first non-family partner at Advancit.

News Byte

Upfront Ventures Is the New GRP Capital, With $200M More to Invest

GRP Capital is now Upfront Ventures, it announced today. (The longtime Los Angeles-based venture capital firm was originally “Global Retail Partners.”) Upfront — whose recent investments include Maker Studios, DataSift and ZestFinance — is also moving to Santa Monica, and has raised a new $200 million fund.

Maker Studios’ Weird Story Gets Weirder, as Former CEO Sues Co-Founders, Investors

Former CEO Danny Zappin stepped down last month, and said all was well. Now he says he was duped.

YouTube’s Show-Me-the-Money Problem