Former Bebo CEO Joanna Shields and Shine Group Chairman and CEO Elisabeth Murdoch have formed a content start-up to produce across media platforms, both online and offline, with a focus on social engagement, according to sources.

The new venture, which does not have a name, is being financially backed by both Shine and Shields.

Based in London, it will invest, develop and partner to create a variety of content offerings that also incorporate interactive and social networking elements.

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In an interesting and innovative move compared to what has typically been less-than-hip online programming over the years, Microsoft’s MSN service is debuting a slick new celebrity site called Wonderwall today–created, designed and produced by a Hollywood company run by former Yahoo media chief and well-known television exec Lloyd Braun.

Using an unusual horizontal design with a scrolling “wall,” a plethora of pictures and a deeply visual sensibility, it’s definitely a laudable risk for Microsoft, as the company seeks to continue to push itself into the online content business, despite a lackluster record.

But will this time be wonderful?

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In an unusual homecoming and odd job switcheroo between two Internet execs, former Yahoo media head Scott Moore is returning to Microsoft to lead its content efforts, according to many sources both inside and outside the company.

Moore will become U.S. executive producer, responsible for leading the content and programming strategy for the MSN online service. He will return to Microsoft’s Seattle area HQ in mid-March and report to Greg Nelson, GM of the MSN Global Media Group.

Moore left Yahoo late last year due to unhappiness over the turmoil at the company and to pursue a start-up idea he had.

He was replaced at Yahoo–in a rushed appointment–by Jeff Dossett, who came, wait for it, from Microsoft, where he held the job Moore is now taking.

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There it was again–like the gnarly ghost of Christmas past–in the Los Angeles Times this week. But this time Lloyd Braun wasn’t going to take it anymore. The object of his ire was dropped right in the middle of a blog post about how Yahoo was “reversing its Hollywoodification” at its Santa Monica media unit offices. The piece also included old allegations from a devastating story in November of 2005 about Braun, which made him look like a digital version of Ari Gold from “Entourage.” Unfortunately, as BoomTown has found out, the bulk of those juicy anecdotes about him don’t actually check out. And therein lies a complex tale that still reverberates at Yahoo today.

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Aside from upcoming layoffs, it seemed as if Yahoo had stanched the flow of major execs from the company.

Not so, it seems, as sources with knowledge of the situation confirm that the two top execs of the troubled Internet company’s media unit will be announcing their departures later this week.

SVP Scott Moore, who runs Yahoo’s media group out of its offices in Santa Monica, Calif., and also Al Warms, who came to Yahoo from its BuzzTracker acquisition last year, will both be leaving, although it is not clear what their plans are.

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Scott Moore, who runs the Yahoo Media Group, sat down with BoomTown at the company’s Santa Monica headquarters last week to talk about the future direction of content at the company.

While the Media unit has had its ups and downs over the years about exactly what it should be–such as the controversial Hollywood-esque Lloyd Braun strategy–one thing that Yahoo has consistently done well is to aggregate and distribute its own and others’ content.

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Lloyd Braun–the former Hollywood super-programmer turned Yahoo entertainment czar turned Hollywood and online programmer–has signed a multimillion-dollar deal to make an original destination site for Microsoft’s MSN portal, aimed at aggregating celebrity, entertainment and pop culture news, according to several sources.

At the same time, Braun also inked a deal with Yahoo to create a daily online report of “weird news.”

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Why does the idea of a marriage between Hollywood writers and VCs make me slightly queasy?

But that’s just the feeling I got when I read the always sharp Joseph Menn of the Los Angeles Times, who penned an interesting piece earlier this week about writers in Hollywood turning to venture capitalists as the strike drags [...]

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How could I not post this beauty from the folks at JibJab Media, in which Walt Mossberg and I get to smack Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, as well as Apple’s Steve Jobs more painfully, with snowballs?
The video card is part of a recent deal the online video creators just inked with BermanBraun Media–an [...]

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Is Yahoo headed for yet another corporate reorganization?

As many of these as the Internet giant has had over the last year, another could not come soon enough.

Yahoo ranks are clearly becoming more restless and increasingly attracted to potentially greener and less volatile pastures, as its co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang toils away on a 100-day, top-to-bottom contemplation of the business he had promised investors on July 17.

Sources at the company, including many jumpy employees who have been thinking about leaving, say there will be massive management and division changes soon.

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Is there a trend in my post yesterday about the deal former Hollywood execs Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman struck with Pepsi to make original online content that the entertainment and marketing arm of the beverage giant will have a chance to fund and sponsor?

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Former Yahoo executive Lloyd Braun and his partner Gail Berman, a former Paramount executive, have struck an online deal with Pepsi, under which the entertainment and marketing arm of the beverage giant will be a “first-look” and have a chance to fund and sponsor original online content the pair produces.

That Hollywood term refers to giving [...]

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