Glam's Shine Wears Off
Glam Media's long campaign to convince people that it's a media company, and not an ad network, seems to be winding down. The end result: The company and its bankers have had to scale back their hopes to raise $200 million at a valuation of up to $1 billion. Instead, reports Valleywag's Owen Thomas, Glam will have to settle for something in the $30 million to $100 million range, and a mere $400 million valuation.
See Also: Glam Dresses For Date With Big Media Sucker
See Also: Glam Dresses For Date With Big Media Sucker
"The company had originally sought to raise a mix of cash and debt, for a total $200 (see its prospectus, page 4), and that’s apparently still part of the plan. (Some reports earlier today didn’t account for the fact that Glam is also raising debt, and wrongly suggested Glam had lowered its sites)."
"Some reports suggest that Glam has sought to raise money at a near $1 billion valuation, but our sources have never confirmed that figure. We’re hearing Glam consistently got feedback during fundraising that it could raise money at a value of between $350 and $500 million, not more."
"One reason for the excitement around Glam is its sector’s growth. Women’s sites, along with politics, was the fastest growing audience categories in 2007, according to Comscore. And here Glam has doing better than the norm. Glam grew at 213 percent, while iVillage grew at 27 percent –again, that is, if you include both Glam’s and iVillage’s directly owned sites as well as their ad partner network sites."
http://venturebeat.com/2008/01/31/glam-still-raising-up-to-200-in-cash-and-debt-announcement-coming-soon/
Would you buy Slide at $500M with no revenue, Facebook at 15B or Glam at 400M? Who is likely to succeed to give returns to investors at this level? Would you buy Yahoo at 20B with negative revenue growth or Glam at 400M which seems to have grown revenue at 1,000%? If search is slowing down, display and video ads will grow. TV and print are slowing down, and the women vertical is growing the fastest.