It may not be a bouquet of roses, but Revver got themselves a better gift. Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee reports that Live Universe came through big time and ponied up a boat load of cash….. way more than earlier reported. OVW is waiting for our source to confirm just how much more (You know my cell phone, chief)

Stirring the editorial pot, I’m still not convinced that Revver can compete in the commoditized world of video sharing platforms. User generated content continues to live across multiple sharing platforms, making it increasingly challenging for any one of them to generate massive amounts of views. While this may limit the amount of revenue they share with their content providers, it also caps the amount of revenue they can generate from being the only platform with any particular piece of video. Remember, those Mentos & Diet Coke guys only made $50k.

Still, happy valentine’s day, Revver. We really are happy for you.

Update: The CEO announced earlier this week that yesterday was going to be everyone’s last day unless this deal went through. That scared the pants off a lot of people, but didn’t give them much time to do anything either. Most of the staff is going over to Live Universe for now, but there will be layoffs in the coming days.

Our source says that Live Universe didn’t pay anywhere close to the “multiple times” the rumored amounts. $475k plus the debt, give or take, allegedly. Revver was, according to our source, burning about $500k a month burn against less than $100k in ad revenue. While that isn’t a ton of burn for a technology company, thats not great either. If Live Universe is wise, they’ll lay most of the Revver staff off anyway and implement a technology like ScanScout to vet the content for porn and poor taste, which is what a large number of the staff was doing.

I’m not sure which story is more intriguing. Revver or Yahoo? Keeping PR flacks and bloggers at their desks.

In this week’s New Media Minute, Daisy Whitney explores why “How To” online videos are so hot right now. But alas, will anyone pay a decent CPM to learn anything from Joe Blow?

The writers are back and, well, aside from some one-off YouTube hits and some A-list talent in those Speechless videos we didn’t see much new in the way of new content online. Nor despite the hype, did it necessarily have any effect on online video traffic.

But at least The Daily Show will be funny again. And since we borrowed Jon Stewart’s farewell to the writers prior to the strike, it’s only fitting he welcome them back:

While digital media residuals will be revisited again in another couple years the writers forced producers to recognize the legitimacy of their stake in online video revenue - something that will give them more leverage at the negotiating table in future contract talks.

This one from YES Essentials, makers of anti-stain, anti-odor, and anti-static car seats. “Chocolate-Covered Proof,” arrived in our inbox right in time for Valentine’s Day, which was, of course, the idea.

Thanks to OVW friend Amanda Mooney for sending it along. Amanda, will you be our Valentine??

I’m hunting for any brave soul’s who asked their significant others to marry them via online video. Send along links if you find any good ones…..like this one, from 1999. Since the creation of this video, Corey Weiss has gone on to become a pioneer in online video marketing and is currently the vice president of integrated marketing at Palisades Media. He’ll also be speaking at the upcoming OMMA Hollywood conference in March.

This one is the winner of 1800Flowers.com’s contest:

And in the meantime, this should make you chuckle.

No, its not politics. Its online video. Social media ad gurus VideoEgg have assembled a nice group of “big brains” to spend the afternoon with. The Engagement Debate ‘08 is being held next week at the Hard Rock in Times Square.

Spaces are filling up fast, so get your ticket before they are gone. But in case you get sold out, we’ll be there covering the event.

With the primary race on the Democratic side showing no sign of cooling off, now might be a good time to catch up on what you’ve missed, or at least watch a different talking head for a chance.

Hillary dumped her campaign manager yesterday, something Newsweek’s Jon Meacham is sure to touch upon during Newsweek’s Webcast covering the Potomac primaries. Tune in at 7pm tonight to Newsweek.com.

In the meantime, enjoy the latest spoofs of a hot political video. This online video, added Monday, has been streamed nearly half a million times in its first 24 hours. The original, “Yes, We Can,” posted below, is a week old and has been streamed more than 5 million times.

As we mentioned last week, lost in the shuffle of the Yahoo! / Microsoft negotiating was Yahoo’s offer for Maven Networks. Today, Yahoo released confirmation that they had, indeed, purchased Maven Networks for $160 million.

The acquisition continues Yahoo’s infrastructure support for delivering and monetizing video. Last week they launched their Lifestream beta, their entry into the personal streaming game.

Poor John McCain, less than a week as the apparent GOP nom-to-be and he’s already being ridiculed in online video. A pair of spoofs are circulating based on the video by Will.i.am last week in support of Barack Obama.

Barely Political’s No You Can’t:

Election 08 on YouTube’s john.he.is:

h/t: Pressing Issues

Skinkers, which earlier this year launched LiveStation, a P2P live streaming player in partnership with Microsoft has released their multi-channel online TV service in beta.

Above: LiveStation Small screen w/ EPG Overlay

The player, a 3.4 MB download for Windows, is based on Silverlight and has a very simple interface with an EPG overlay that comes up when moused over. So far five channels are available to U.S. users: BBC World Service radio, BBC Radio 4, France 24 (English & French) and Al Jazeera World News London, but more should be coming soon.

Above: LiveStation Full Screen

Speed of channel changing is extremely rapid, with very little load time and once the video starts up the stream is fluid and high quality with no skipping or rebuffering. It’s like having a cable TV interface on your computer.

Considering how much time users spend surfing the net while watching TV it’s easy to imagine them running LiveStation in the background wherever they are.