Machinima Draws Closer To Funding, Deal With Warner Bros., Restructuring Continues

Machinima is reportedly close to raising upwards of $18 million to scale its gamer-geared online video platform. Yet the expected financing won’t help the 42 employees just released by the YouTube multichannel network.

In a statement, the company described the move as a “restructuring in and around [the] sales organization in an effort to create greater focus internally on selling creative ad solutions and branded entertainment, while better leveraging [a] longstanding partnership with YouTube to drive media sales.”

Yet Machinima appears to be in a protracted slate of restructuring. The company laid off 22 employees late last year, and continues to experience significant executive turnover. Allen DeBevoise, cofounder and CEO, Philip DeBevoise, cofounder and president, and Aaron DeBevoise, executive vice president of programming, all jumped ship last year.

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More recently, Nanea Reeves, Machinima's COO left the company at the beginning of the year. Reeves came on in mid-2012 to help Machinima expand distribution across platforms and assisted in launching apps for Xbox360 and Xbox One.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that Warner Bros. was considering an investment in Machinima. As of Thursday, Re/Code reported that the deal was nearly done, and would likely leave Machinima with an additional $18 million. 

Worldwide, some 700 million consumers spent time playing online games last year, according to comScore.
 
Outdoing the most optimistic projections, the gaming industry continues to post staggering revenue gains. DFC Intelligence has said it expects the global market for video games, including online and console, to grow from $67 billion in 2012 to $82 billion by 2017.

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