Linus Sebastian is stepping down as CEO of Linus Media Group, rejects $100 million takeover...

midian182

midian182

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In brief: Linus Sebastian, one of the most popular tech personalities on YouTube thanks to his Linus Tech Tips channel, has announced he is stepping down as the CEO of the media group, though he will still appear in videos. Linus also admitted that he received a $100 million offer for his company, which he turned down as he doesn't need the money.

In a video titled I'm Stepping Down..., Linus said his decision to step down as CEO of Linus Media Group, which runs not only the YouTube channels but also Floatplane media, LTT Labs, and Creator Warehouse, is because he lacks the attention to detail and temperament to run an organization of over 100 people.

"I wasn't built for this, and I'm tired," he says. "Like 'really can't do this anymore' tired. And if I try to drag myself through another ten years of business administration I know I'm gonna destroy myself, and probably end up killing the company and the community that I love so much in the process."

While viewers shouldn't notice any changes in the Linus Media Group's videos, the founder is moving to the new position of Chief Vision Officer, a "stupid, BS-sounding, made-up role," but one that will allow him to appear in more videos, given he'll have fewer corporate responsibilities to attend to. Linus and his wife, Yvonne, will continue to be the sole shareholders and directors of Linus Media Group.

An interesting part of the video comes when Linus reveals Linus Media Group received a $100 million buyout proposal, with 60% of it in cash and 40% in equity in the unnamed company making the offer. Linus said he rejected the deal because he loves working at his organization and doesn't need a bigger house or a faster car. He said that receiving $100 million "wouldn't really change our lifestyle much." Linus is estimated to have a net worth of $85 million, with most of it coming from ad revenue, video sponsors, affiliate marketing, and merchandise sales from his store.

Replacing Linus as CEO of Linus Media Group is Terren Tong, formerly of Corsair and Dell and Linus' one-time boss while they were at NCIX.

Back in March, several of Linus' channels, including Tech Tips, were temporarily taken offline after they were hacked to show crypto-scam videos. The the same trick had been used on several previous occasions, including the hack on the British Army YouTube channel last year

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98751-linus-sebastian-stepping-down-ceo-linus-media-group.html

 
What is even the point of working for someone as successful and wealthy as Linus?

He should have done this a long time ago. I fully understand his decision.
 
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Achaios said:
What is even the point of working for someone as successful and wealthy as Linus?

He should have done this a long time ago. I fully understand his decision.
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He still will be working the same, but as content creator more, than as business manager. He don't want to go through paper work, agreements, contract signing, HR stuff, and all the boring things business needs to go forward. He still be the owner and probably will be able to voice his veto or course change.
 
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"Stepping down" is a bit of a misleading way to put things, given this:

Linus and his wife, Yvonne, will continue to be the sole shareholders and directors of Linus Media Group.
Click to expand...

So he's no longer the 'CEO' and will have someone else in that role, but in such a tiny company, being the owner and CEO amounts to basically the same thing: Being the sole shareholders means that he can at any point and for any reason, overwrite any important decision from the "CEO" he personally chooses.

A far more fair statement is that he's going to hire someone to help him with administrative tasks. It's not like this isn't an important position mind you since the new person can technically do quite a bit to influence the direction of the company without waiting for Linus or Yvonne's approval so it isn't like hiring an P.A. But this isn't what you normally think about when you think 'CEO' which is someone with strategic control and often even at least a sit at the board of directors to have some measure of overall strategic control.
 
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eTheBlack said:
He will literally be doing same thing, except CEO things. Basically what you saw before, you will keep seeing
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True, and as Dimitriid pointed out - "Stepping down" is a bit of a misleading way to put things, given this...Being the sole shareholders means that he can at any point and for any reason, overwrite any important decision from the "CEO" he personally chooses."

That's why I want to know exactly who made the $100 million buyout proposal. Because what Linus is signaling is that his company is in a "bigger league" now, and some "sharks" have already been hanging around them. And he needs or is looking for a different strategy from now on.
 
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eTheBlack said:
He will literally be doing same thing, except CEO things. Basically what you saw before, you will keep seeing
Click to expand...

This, there are about 4 other guys that feature often, I bet they break out into niche` sub channels like a linux channel, build channel, review channel etc ...
 
Linus is estimated to have a net worth of $85 million, with most of it coming from ad revenue, video sponsors, affiliate marketing, and merchandise sales from his store.
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And lots and lots of money from Nvidia and Intel, but specially Nvidia, just like many other youtubers.

But as they say, dont hate the player, hate the game.
 
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Yeah, they went a bit click-baity and a lot of people are not understanding (or didn't actually watch) that nothing creatively is changing, only administratively. Linus will keep doing what he's always been doing; being the face of LMG and producing videos.

Of course congrats to him for offloading a lot of the busy work, but I don't see anything else fundamentally changing under his old NCIX boss (his longtime friend).
 
stewi0001 said:
I never even heard of him but I give him props.
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I can't believe you've never seen Linus while googling a review on a tech product. We all do it, we all wanna know if its pants or not. He tries to be unbias and people will call him out on sponsored stuff or when they feel they can't trust his group like he did with the alienware 3423dw.

But like ya say good on him wanting to keep it going but doing it the right way and not selling out.
 
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3volv3d said:
I can't believe you've never seen Linus while googling a review on a tech product. We all do it, we all wanna know if its pants or not. He tries to be unbias and people will call him out on sponsored stuff or when they feel they can't trust his group like he did with the alienware 3423dw.

But like ya say good on him wanting to keep it going but doing it the right way and not selling out.
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It does sound rare that someone can say they don't know who Linus is. I know who Linus is. Good on him for having a successful business. I, personally, can't stand the guy. His voice grates on my nerves....like nails on a chalk board (actually, nails on a chalk board doesn't bother me, but his voice does).

I don't know why folks like watching these youtube guys to begin with. I personally like reading reviews over listening to someone that likes to hear their own voice - to each their own.
 
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Maybe the channel will chill out on the product shilling, they make some good content but geez the constant pushes for water bottles and other stuff is super annoying.

but thats how all the bigger youtube channels are.

and youtube itself, so the apples really dont fall far from the tree.
 
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Wouldn't quite call it stepping down, more like side stepping to have to spend less time in business administration, like a "chairman" role with a CEO in tow, where the CEO handles the day to day, and the chairman outlines vision and can veto / monitor performance, but not have to make every decision as it comes
 
If it was another corporate minded guy, that person would have grabbed the 100mil offer and sold his soul.

This is a true guy holding to his principle who didn't yield to greed. Hard to see nowadays people who can say "enough for me". But anyway, he's already a double-digit multimillionaire, so there's that too.
 
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I got excited for a moment that I wouldn't be seeing his stupid facial expressions in his video thumbnails ever again. Alas, that excitement was short-lived.
 
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