Linus Gabriel Sebastian & Linus Media Group / Linus Tech Tips - Narcissistic corporate shill YouTuber driving his media empire into the ground. KILL COUNT: 2

[Kees H]

Techlinked didn't have a video for wednesday. Weird. At least on YT. In the past, they've usually done a podcast style episode with Riley and that bearded ginger guy. Not Tanner McCoolguy or whatever.

Linus Media Group announced in their dumb apology video that wasn't an apology but a ad for their crappy merch that they would take a week off when it came to posting videos on any of their YouTube channels.

 

[ChromaQuack]

He really should have just sold it and walked away. Yeah he might be a lolcow, but he is a lolcown with 100m or so even before taxes.

This implies that, again, the offer was real, in paper, and not just a potential valuation someone mentioned until they did their due diligence for the investment and decided that $500 and 200 grams of copper were a more appropriate offer.

 

[TheRaptorJesus]

Linus Media Group announced in their dumb apology video that wasn't an apology but a ad for their crappy merch that they would take a week off when it came to posting videos on any of their YouTube channels.

Good thing they didn't waste $500 retesting that block.

 

[Drama Fan]

what are you talking about?
Everyone can see them in their underwear on their fag web store
View attachment 5279510

There's an editor that has to blur his hapa producing genitals since they like to include footage like that in some videos,
View attachment 5279514
They have used multiple employees for underwear on the site too.

Even when trying to sell me underwear this guy can't help but shill his water bottles, smh. Kinda like how this comment is going to sell you on our sponsor

 

[PointOfNoReturnPoint]

This implies that, again, the offer was real, in paper, and not just a potential valuation someone mentioned until they did their due diligence for the investment and decided that $500 and 200 grams of copper were a more appropriate offer.

A few million up or down would make him the richest lolcow ever. I think he would have walked away happy regardless.

 

[beepbopisuckcock]

I'm more inclined to believe her in this instance since I do believe there isn't much reason to lie about something like this. ...

Then you a simp or have brain damage. There is currently big drama going on and as an online personality inserting herself into it by piling on gets her more attention, money, and simps. Simple as.

 

[jallsballs]

I wonder if Linus has ever banged his wife's significantly less ugly sister.

 

[Pee Cola]

I wonder what will happen to other creators who relies on the platform like Dankpods if let's say, the shitstorm goes really south this time for LTT?

Is there anything other than LMG and DankPods content on Floatplane?

I know it's Luke's baby. Whilst this is highly unlikely to happen, Floatplane's best chance of survival is for Luke to take it with him once he bails from LMG. Even then, the cost of running the platform plus its dependence on one Aussie with a drum kit and a snake for its survival, could be a bridge too far.

If he takes the money and retires, disappearing from youtube -> he has to admit he peaked and it's all quietly downhill from there

True, Linus is too much of a narcissist to see sense. I know if someone offered me $100m for my business when I was in my mid-30s, I would've taken it, enjoyed my early retirement and spent more time with my
spawn.

Though I guess in Linus' case, it'd be more like only $50m once Yvonne eventually divorces his ass, plus he'd be on the hook for child support. Either way, a newly divorced dude with child support commitments could still easily live off $50m as long as he doesn't spend it all on yacht girls and Colombian marching powder.

In fairness his reasoning for not selling was "I already have mills in the bank, what will more mills change?" which I do agree with, but he is also the biggest reason the company and its content is shit. Hes a complete retard.

If Linus was smart, he would have taken the deal after having his lawyers carefully examine any non-compete clauses, as well as putting something in there so as to not accidentally sell the rights to his name and likeness in perpetuity as part of the deal.

He then could have kept a low profile during the non-compete period, whilst building a new Linus business in the background. As soon as the non-complete clause expires, launch the all-new Linus Channel and build a new empire using his old fans as a foundation.

Spoiler: Case study

I've just described what the founders of CarAdvice, a popular Australian automotive website, did a few years back.

In 2016, they sold CarAdvice to one of the major media companies down here for $60 million dollarydoos (about $40m Freedom Bux). It was business as usual for a while, with the founders still writing content and managing the site as if nothing had happened.

This changed in mid-2019, when the founders suddenly left the site with little explanation. Not long afterwards, a number of CarAdvice's most popular and well-respected writers started to quit.

In early 2020, a website called CarExpert pops up out of nowhere. Owned by... yep, you guessed it, the three guys who started CarAdvice.

One by one, the writers who left CarAdvice started writing for CarExpert. Whilst I'm not autistic enough to go down that rabbit hole, there's a non-zero chance that there's a six month gap between each writer's final CarAdvice article and their first CarExpert article.

How did CarAdvice's corporate overlords respond? They rebranded to Drive and turned into a cross between a virtual car dealership and the Daily Mail of automotive news.

Whislt nobody except for the owners know the specifics of the CarAdvice sale, the timing of the founders leaving and the launch of CarExpert makes it pretty obvious that these guys had a plan in place long before they signed the sale contract. They made out like bandits and they're still doing what they love. Well played, boys.

tbh I'm surprised Yvonne didn't think of a similar exit strategy for LMG... but maybe the idea of Linus being stuck at home during the non-compete period, carrying on like a 4 year old ADHD kid after his first Red Bull enema, was too scary a propect for her to deal with.

 

[Doctor Doom]

It was REPLACED but sadly the game got delayed because their HQ are on Belarus

That's a shame. Both that and Last Night look pretty good.

 

[ChromaQuack]

A few million up or down would make him the richest lolcow ever. I think he would have walked away happy regardless.

I think it would have been less than half, still some huge money for a cow to blow through, yet low enough for him to outright refuse it.

 

[Last Ride]

DBrand Twitter statement about the events.



Usually meme brand accounts piss me off, but the box made me laugh.

 

[TheOtherSideofMakeBelieve]

Usually meme brand accounts piss me off, but the box made me laugh.

The box didn't do much for me but I'm glad I read to the end, "Thank you for reading and go fuck yourself" really caught me off guard lmao

 

[Marche]

Yeah Madison has issues, she/theming and gouging her leg open to get sick days is evidence enough of that, but let’s not pretend she went nuts because “she had to send a couple twitter posts a day”. Her job was genuinely hard work.

She's a twitch streamer though right? Why didn't she just fucking leave?

 

[quackrock]

I don't know how anyone can deal with using gmail in a professional setting that does a lot of email.

I liked it and thought it was fine because my job involves more than sitting on e-mail all day.

 

[Dollar Store Sentai]

She's a twitch streamer though right? Why didn't she just fucking leave?

She did. I can't remember how long she said she worked there but it had to be less than 6 months

 

[TheOtherSideofMakeBelieve]

She's a twitch streamer though right? Why didn't she just fucking leave?

LTT/LMG has rules in place regarding their employees streaming and other avenues of social media monetization. I think even Luke had to jump through hoops before he was allowed to monetize his twitch channel. If I remember right Linus made him stream X number of days a week every week for quite a while with zero monetization to prove that he was just streaming for fun before he let him turn monetization features on. As they've become more and more bureaucratic it wouldn't surprise me if their non-compete or something similar prevents them from streaming or doing normal youtube content for as long as they're legally able to block them

 

[俺たちファームズでノッテる]

Imagine being so afraid of your employee's ability to be more successful than you in grifting, you force them to sign a "non-compete" agreement that makes you can't stream for certain hours on twitch.

 

[Susanna]

non-compete

Definitely unenforceable. I’m sure if an employee wanted to test Linus on this the most he would do is fire them, because paying a lawyer to actually pursue it is a waste of time and money. I’ve read of similar situations in Canada (though with a conventional journalist), and it ended with the employer who started the lawsuit forced to pay for the employee’s lawyer, and the non-compete voided for everyone who had signed it.

If Linus did fire the employee, that would be a wrongful termination, but while that gets sorted out the employee is left with no income in a fairly expensive city, so I can understand why none of his (impoverished) employees are willing to test this. It’s the same with unionising. It’s 100% in the employee’s interests to do so, especially with a boss like Linus, but Linus 100% would fire you for trying, and while you’d win the wrongful termination suit, you’d get basically nothing out of it but some spite.

 

[Chickenpolar]

Fun Reddit thread
Linus and Luke lied about Floatplanes audio and video quality
Archive

Also seems LMG might be doing some not-conplying-with-EU
-VAT-Regulations-Shenanigans according to the op.

From a comment

Great for pointing out the tax!

I just checked my account, I had a yearly subscription of 100 USD/year, my billing information is correctly set to Poland and the invoice states 100 USD with 0 USD taxes. I also checked the invoice and receipt I got in the mail and they have no information about taxes. My credit card was charged exactly 100 USD so this also wasn't added post transaction

VAT and stating it on receipts is mandatory on either full or simplified invoice in EU ( https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/vat-invoicing-rules_en ) so could mean tax infringements.

 

[mandatorylurk]

No Wan Show tonight per their community post on YouTube, they will continue to internally review what Madison said and focus on the quality check on their videos.

This also ends a Wan Show streak they had for years where even if they were sick or not able to speak (Luke had dental surgery one week), they showed up for the show either in person or via webcam.

Their actions are now making it seem like Madison’s schizo screeching actually has merit as opposed to just saying bitch be crazy.