Glam Media Raises $50 Million In Private Equity Mezzanine Financing

SILICON VALLEY, Calif. and NEW YORK, Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Glam Media, Inc. (www.GlamMedia.com), number one in global reach for women online, announced today the raising of approximately $50 million in a private equity mezzanine funding. Proceeds of the funds will be used to build a Digital Media Technology Center, expand internationally and for strategic acquisitions.  The Series E round is led by Aeris CAPITAL with existing Glam Media Series D Investors Burda Digital Holding—the digital arm of Hubert Burda Media—and Mizuho Capital participating.

Glam Media has raised private equity mezzanine financing to continue to fund the company's hyper growth as a leading innovator of brand display advertising as the online consumer—driven by Google Search, Blogs and Twitter—moves away from portals and large destination sites to vertical niche content and social media.  Glam is the pioneer of Vertical Media, bringing together highly engaged audiences at massive scale with quality mid and long-tail content and professional social media blogs.  Glam also announced that North America Region business reached EBITDA profitability and the Global business was EBITDA break-even in Q4, 2009.  This round brings the net total cash raised by the company directly to approximately $130 million.

"In a short 5 years since launch, Glam Media has become a 'must-buy' for the world's leading brand advertisers," said Samir Arora, chairman and CEO of Glam Media.  "I am incredibly proud of our employees and the Glam family of publishers and partners that have all worked incredibly hard in the downturn, helping to buck the trends to create the Number 1 Women's Lifestyle Media Company today."

As a part of the financing, Dr. Marcel Reichart, Managing Director of DLD Ventures, an investment unit of Burda Digital Holding, will be joining the Glam Media Board of Directors as a representative of the Series E mezzanine investment.

"Glam Media has successfully demonstrated a highly scalable content and premium ad platform, which delivers value and innovation to global brand advertisers and publishers," said Dr. Marcel Reichart of DLD Ventures.  "This private equity-led round allows Glam Media to further expand its distributed media model internationally and into new market segments."

By combining industry leading reach with passionate audiences, Glam Media is the #1 network for women in community—and achieved this position with unprecedented speed—reaching 72 million unique monthly visitors in the US and 160 million uniques globally.  Glam Media is #8 in Pure Media properties, a comScore Media Metrix Top 11 Web property and a Top 10 Adweek Display Ad Publisher.

The new funding will be used to:

• Open a Digital Media Technology Center
• Invest in new International markets
• Launch new Audience-based Vertical Channels
• Do strategic M&A to build the Glam Media Platform
• Build an alternative to portals for top brand advertisers

Glam Media's content network includes over 1,400 publishers and unique content in key vertical channels focused on audiences such as women from style and beauty to mothers and healthy living.  With Vertical Media, Glam Media is innovating by delivering unique capabilities for online brand engagement—emotionally impactful ad solutions, beyond the click engagement analytics, and next generation audience targeting technology. Recent strategic hires include former Yahoo! VP & GM of Advertising Technology Platforms Josh Jacobs as Senior Vice President of Brand Advertising Products & Marketing, who has assumed responsibility for all of Glam Media's brand advertising products, as well as global marketing and communications.

Glam Media managed operations very tightly over the last seven quarters since the downturn, remaining focused on its founding vision that as time-spent on the Internet continues to grow, brand advertising would shift away from traditional media to the web.  The economic slowdown further increased the use of online media given the ability to hyper-target the audience contextually, driving Glam's rise as an innovator in digital media for brand advertisers.  Taking quick and decisive action early in the downturn, starting at the top—including 40-50 % cuts in executive leadership compensation, a 8% cut in total employees in the US and a move to employee variable pay.  The sacrifices and passion of the employees along with the publishers jointly have enabled Glam Media to deliver over 300% increase in Revenue in two years while simultaneously reaching Global EBITDA break-even in Q4, 2009 and ending 2009 with $20 Million in Capital prior to this funding in the worst financial period in recent economic times. Glam will continue to manage the business operations with extreme care as the global economic outlook continues to evolve.

About Glam Media

Glam Media is the pioneering vertical media company that connects brand advertisers with targeted vertical audiences online.  With a reach of 72 million unique monthly visitors in the US and 160 million uniques globally, Glam Media is #1 comScore Community properties targeting Women, #8 in online media, a comScore Top 11 in the Top 100 Web Properties, and a Top 10 Adweek Display Ad Publisher. Glam Media has over 1,400 publishers organized in vertical networks: Glam.com for Women, Brash.com for Men and Tinker.com for real-time Social Media.  Glam Media is backed by Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Hubert Burda Media, Information Capital, GLG Partners, Mizuho Bank and Walden Venture. Glam is headquartered in New York City, New York and Silicon Valley, California, with offices in Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, and internationally in London, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Tokyo.

About Burda Digital Holding

As the digital arm of Hubert Burda Media, an international media and magazine group, Burda Digital Holding comprises more than 40 growth companies including Glam Media, Tomorrow Focus AG, Xing AG and Burda Consumer Tech Group) in several digital market segments. Burda Digital Holding is led by Hubert Burda Media CEO Dr. Paul Bernhard Kallen.  DLD Ventures leverages the DLD Conference network, helps in international expansion and invests in digital media companies.

About Mizuho Capital

Mizuho Capital is a venture capital firm that is a part of the Mizuho Bank, one of the largest Japanese banks globally in terms of assets.  The firm has headquarters in Tokyo with offices in Silicon Valley.

SOURCE Glam Media, Inc.