A previous post pondered the provenance of eBaum's WORLD and Cheezburger. Who owns them exactly, and what is the chain of possession from previous owners?
So is Viumbe a Literally subsidiary? Is eBaum in transition between owners with dated website info? Or is Literally the "old" owner? Inquiring meme ghouls want to know.
Thanks to polyaenus for emailing with some additional research. The text below is quoted in full from the email:
First, looking at the Viumbe site, it seems quite dead.
It lists three sites in its media kit pdf and two of them redirect to Ebaumsworld.
@celebremix stopped tweeting in 2012 and @viumbe in 2013.
The sales contact listed in the media kit seems to work somewhere else now.
However, the Ebaumsworld and Cheezburger twitters are still active, run by "EiC" @colbydroscher.
Ebaumsworld was acquired by Handheld Entertainment Inc (ZVUE) in 2007. [link]
Interestingly, Handheld was run by Google cofounder Larry Page's brother.
At first his company made a video/mp3 player called ZVUE, trying to compete with Apple's iPod.
I guess this didn't work and they tried to pivot into online media. [link]
Before they made the big purchase of Ebaumsworld, they ran some other sites:
"It offers content through YourDailyMedia.com, FunMansion.com, Putfile.com, Dorks.com, ZVUE.com, and UnOriginal.co.uk Web sites" [link]
ZVUE was eventually suspended from trading in 2014. [link]
I'm not sure how Viumbe got ZVUE's assets but this says it was formed in 2009. [link]
Viumbe "relaunched" Ebaumsworld in 2012. [link]
Viumbe was sold to JoBookit Holdings Limited in 2014 for $2.5 million according to this lawsuit. [link]
"Jobookit develops game changing concepts and dynamic technologies to optimize and ultimately simplify the world of online recruitment."
not sure what that has to do with a meme site.
This guy [twitter] is listed as both the CEO of Jobookit and the Co-owner of Viumbe until it was acquired by Literally Media in 2017. [link]
Literally (founded 2015) acquired Cheezburger in 2016
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cheezburger-acquired-by-literally-media-joining-ebaums-world-as-the-destination-for-reaching-millennial-and-generation-z-audiences-and-the-5-entertainment---humor-destination-according-to-comscore-data-576567001.html
(look at that fucking url lol)
One weird thing is that according to the above link, Cheezburger "joins" Ebaumsworld as being part of Literally Media, in 2016. Yet Filstein's own site and LinkedIn says Literally bought Viumbe in 2017. Confusing.
one last link i found from a bitter content farmer...
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/blogs/why-i-was-fired-from-viumbe/84865523/