Glam Media, Adconion fill their ad-network treasure chests
What recession? Two large online ad networks rake in venture funding this week with the aim to expand globally.
Two online advertising networks, San Francisco-based Glam Media and the London-based Adconion, have raised some major venture dollars. The news was originally reported in The Wall Street Journal.
Glam Media, which operates a central core of sites geared toward women and serves ads on a network of over 400 partner sites, has raised a total of almost $85 million--$64.6 million from investors led by Hubert Burda Media, and $20 million in debt financing. The company's valuation, according to the Journal, will be around $500 million, and it hopes to pull in $100 million in revenue this year.
A representative from longtime Glam investor Accel Partners described the financing round in part as a "rainy-day fund" due to current economic uncertainties. Additionally, Glam plans to use the money to expand internationally and make more acquisitions.
Consequently, Glam has announced its "Glam International" expansion initiative, and aims to have a foothold in the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, and other international markets by the end of 2008. To kick that off, British blog publisher Shiny Media has signed onto Glam's advertising network.
Adconion, conversely, is a U.K. company that hopes to make greater U.S. inroads. The network only recently expanded to North American markets, and announced Monday that it has raised $80 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures and Wellington Partners. With the extra cash, it hopes to broaden its U.S. operations and also invest in new technology that will help it to better compete with online advertising's 800-pound gorilla, Google.
Despite the other 800-pound gorilla--namely, the faltering economy--online advertising continues to expand and make headlines. This week's Interactive Advertising Bureau conference in Phoenix will see headlines from Microsoft and other big digital-media players. Google, meanwhile, continues to augment its Madison Avenue visibility with luxe parties and elaborate pitches to New York ad agencies.