Good morning. “Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

Today, the US honors civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. You probably know snippets from some King’s most impactful speeches, but what you might not know? How long it took the holiday to be recognized nationwide. The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture outlines the 15-year battle for MLK Day.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

With over 250 million followers across platforms, comedy creator Serigne Khabane “Khaby” Lame just added a few more million (dollars) to his name. Hong Kong-based financial company Rich Sparkle Holdings announced plans to acquire Lame’s operating company, Step Distinctive Limited, in a deal valued between between $900 and $975 million.

Behind the deal: Step Distinctive Limited—an e-commerce company of which Lame owns 49%—is being acquired through an all-stock deal, which was made by issuing 75 million shares. Following the announcement, Rich Sparkle shares rose over 250% on Friday. As of this morning, the stock is up about 50% for the week. 

What is Lame turning over? Rich Sparkle Holdings will hold exclusive rights to Lame’s commercial business for the next three years. That includes an AI Twin integration, which will allow Lame’s likeness to be licensed for commercial use.

Zoom out: Lame is using a growing operating company to position himself in the market as more than just a creator—a playbook with a strong track record. Last year, MrBeast announced plans to enter business verticals like financial and mobile phone services, while other creators like Anthpo are using their influence to expand into marketing services.

Basketball creator Jesser recently announced big moves for his YouTube strategy—doubling the uploads on his main channel, starting a gaming channel, and evolving his second channel, Team Jesser.

We talked to Head of Team Jesser, Dan Lambert, to gain insight.

Context: Last year, Jesser rebranded his Reacts channel to Team Jesser—changing to an ensemble cast with IRL shoots that take up to 4x longer to produce.  

“Moving away from content that delivers consistent viewership and predictable revenue isn’t a decision we took lightly,” Lambert told us. “Ultimately, after 500 videos, Jesser just wasn’t as excited about making reaction videos as he once was, and when your content business is built around the creator that excitement is everything.”

Despite a heavier production lift, the changes to Team Jesser resulted in a record year for the channel. 

Lambert told us the evolution of the second channel teed Jesser up for 2026: doubling down on main channel content and starting a gaming channel.

Big picture: In the last year, Jesser began syndicating his content on platforms including Hulu and Tubi. Jesser videos also charted on Spotify as a top sports podcast. Despite the increased reach across platforms, Lambert told us YouTube still remains the core pillar of the brand.

“After a year of running a group channel, we’ve learned a lot and heard from our audience, so we’re making changes again,” Lambert said. “We’ve realized how big the demand for more Jesser content has been and are doubling down on this in 2026.

UK photography creator Jack Smith (aka A Blank Wall) is connecting with the late grandfather he never met, armed with 80K undeveloped photos and a following of 229K.

Quick snapshot: While visiting his family in 2021, Smith found his grandfather’s photography archive from the years 1945–1987, documenting his world travels with his wife. Smith began the laborious process of sifting through thousands of photos, digitizing them, and selling prints in limited drops—all while making short-form content documenting the project.

So what’s Smith’s strategy for this photography undertaking? Although Smith runs his own socials, he relies on technicians to help him curate the collection.

“Candidly, [there are] elements to the scanning processes, the digitization processes, developing processes, which I still don't understand because they're super technical and really expensive,” Smith told us.

What’s next? Finding a local audience, while expanding his short-form strategy beyond Instagram.

“I realized there's a really big difference between having a global following, and getting people messaging me from all over the world versus bringing people to an event in London,” Smith said. “So that's something I want to work on this year.”

*This is sponsored content