Two-hundred million subscribers and counting — American Youtuber Jimmy Donaldson AKA MrBeast has a legion of followers greater than the population counts of most countries, and with the fame, comes plenty of interest from investors as well.
That said, the 24-year-old content creator/philanthropist hasn’t let it get to his head, even if the cheque has nine zeroes on it. In a recent chat on the FLAGRANT podcast, Donaldson revealed that he was once offered a billion dollars for control of his vast content-creation machine — although he chose to prefer having autonomy instead of boatloads of cash.
“I have been offered a pretty crazy [deal],” Donaldson told FLAGRANT co-host Andrew Schulz in a September 27 episode of the show. “Not official term sheets, but people that would actually be able to afford it… a billion dollars if we could own the channel and the companies.”
According to Donaldson, the offer was definitely ‘enticing’ once it first arrived. As talks progressed, however, the Youtuber came to realize that above all, he still wanted to be his own boss.
“I don’t know if I want to work for my YouTube channel,” he explained. While he wasn’t able to reveal who the interested potential buyers were, he assured listeners that the offer was 100% legitimate. “Not a term sheet,” he repeated, “but people who would. If I took it seriously, they would’ve been like ‘Okay, let’s figure it out.’ I can’t go any further than that.”
Donaldson’s Fans Agreed As Well:
Rather than sell off his media empire, it seems that Donaldson and his team are actually looking to find wiser ways of drawing in further value, with the main man himself being worth anywhere between 50 to 100 million dollars. Reed Duchscher, Mr. Beast’s manager, is currently drawing over $100 million in investment for Night Capital, a new firm that sets the template for the future of content creation and brand management.
“Night has been in this business for a very long time,” said Alexandra Moore, an ex-Amazon executive who joined Night Capital earlier this month. “They have ridden various waves of algorithm changes and consumer consumption habits and have successfully partnered with the talent on their roster to make recommendations and drive new business opportunities.”
Lead Image: MrBeast/FLAGRANT
