Jerry Beck Cartoon BrewHere’s something that has Hollywood’s animation pros buzzing today: Blogger and toon historian Jerry Beck has been bought out of the popular website Cartoon Brew by business partner Amid Amidi. Nine years after co-founding the venture which tracks the animation industry, Beck posted a farewell note to the site this afternoon. Amidi followed with a press release trumpeting the change along with a new mobile platform to come next month. For the animation community Beck’s sudden departure is an eyebrow-raiser, but Beck told Deadline talks began in November to decide Cartoon Brew’s fate. “We were clearly two different types of people in terms of our points of view”, Beck said. “I think that was one of the pleasures of the site. But the time had come to move on”. Beck is penning a book about SpongeBob SquarePants and will continue writing with a focus on animation history at his own blog Cartoon Research, which could grow into a competing toon-focused website.