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Glam Media hooks up with Ning

by Mary Kathleen Flynn | Published September 21, 2011 at 3:42 PM

Glam Media Inc., an online publisher of thousands of websites aimed primarily at women, late Tuesday, Sept. 20, unveiled plans to acquire Ning, which provides technology for building social websites.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but reports peg the consideration at $150 million in cash and stock.

"Acquiring Ning adds a natural extension to our social media platform, new distribution channels and a talented Silicon Valley team, all of which support our aim to connect brands with engaged, passionate audiences," Glam CEO Samir Arora said. The acquisition will create a social media content company with more than 240 million users and 100,000 publishers, according to Glam.

Ning's lineage is vintage Silicon Valley. The Palo Alto, Calif., startup was co-founded in 2004 by entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Marc Andreessen of Netscape Communications fame, who is Ning's current chairman and who is joining Glam's board of directors. Andreessen also serves on the boards of Facebook Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and eBay Inc.

In addition to Andreessen, Ning's backers include LinkedIn Corp. founder and chairman Reid Hoffman and Allen & Co. Examples of brands using Ning's technology include musical act Linkin Park's fan social network, Martha Stewart's mentorship community, Sen. Scott Brown's virtual re-election campaign office and the collaborative hub for the Peace Corps.

The company was completely overhauled a year ago, following the departure of co-founder Gina Bianchini, who served as CEO. Led by new chief executive Jason Rosenthal (previously the company's chief operating officer), Ning transformed its business model from a "freemium" approach to a subscription-based strategy. The new business model seems to be successful, with Ning increasing the number of paying customers from 17,000 to more than 100,000 and growing its revenue by more than 500%, according to the company.

Ning will operate as a new business unit within Glam Media, with Rosenthal as its general manager.

Based in Brisbane, Calif., Glam said it has more than 2,500 publishers organized across multiple vertical online categories including: Glam.com for Women, Glam Entertainment for Adults, Brash.com for Men and Bliss.com for health and wellness seekers. It has raised $175 million in venture capital, with backers including Information Capital LLC, Accel Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Walden Venture Capital. Earlier in the year, Glam was said to be meeting with bankers to discuss an initial public offering.

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