Earlier this month I wrote about how YouTube was considering to buy out viral video production company Next New Networks. It turns out that in the middle of these talks, Next New Networks raised $1 million in debt financing according to an SEC filing. Some of the investors in this round include Ross Levinsohn (Fuse Capital), Bijan Sabet (Spark Capital), Saban Capital Group, and Goldman Sachs. [TechCrunch]

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has hired Wayne Powers to head up their North American advertising sales. Powers was an executive at Time Warner Inc. beforehand. Powers, 49, worked as the president of the media group at Time Inc. He will now be reporting to Ross Levinsohn. Powers is replacing Joanne Bradford, who left Yahoo! to join Demand Media. Yahoo! almost considered not replacing Bradford, but the executive she reported to, Hilary Schneider, also left the company. Levinsohn will be replacing Schneider later this year. [WSJ]

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has hired Ross Levinsohn as EVP of Americas. Levinsohn will be in charge of advertising sales and partnerships. He will be reporting directly to CEO Carol Bartz. Levinsohn will be stepping down as the co-founder and managing director of equity management company Fuse Capital. Levinsohn was the President of Fox Interactive Media at the time that they acquired MySpace. Before joining Fox, Levinsohn had management positions at AltaVista, HBO, and CBS Sportsline. [CNET]

5to1 is a start-up that launched out of stealth mode at the TechCrunch50 conference. The company aims to make it easier for advertising companies to sell off remnant advertising. Remnant advertising is inventory that was unable to be sold due to ad space or time.

Many people that view news websites will notice there is quite a bit of ads that seem totally irrelevant from the publisher’s brand. The team behind 5to1 includes former Fox Interactive executives Jim Heckman and Ross Levinsohn. 5to1 even raised $4.5 million in seed funding.

5to1 helps get rid of the ineffective ad campaigns that only benefit the networks selling the campaigns. The end goal of the service is to increase the quality and revenue of advertisements.