News brief: Warner Bros. close to Machinima investment

Hollywood studio Warner Bros. is leading a round of funding that will see US$18 million sunk into YouTube gamer-related content channel Machinima, according to several US reports.

Existing Machinima investors including Google are also understood to contributing to the new funding. Google led an earlier funding round in 2012 that raised US$35 million.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Machinima has also cut almost a third of its workforce, with 42 sales staff being axed.