Women’s focused advertising network Glam Media, which raised $85 million in a combined debt and equity financing in February 2008 (they have raised a total of $115 million since 2004), was rumored to be mulling over a $1.3 billion acquisition offer just a couple of months later in May.
It’s a safe bet to assume that the merger discussions were leaked directly by CEO Samir Arora or his advisors at the AllThingsD conference he was attending when the story broke.
We now believe that there was indeed some sort of discussion taking place that may have valued Glam at over $1 billion. Sort of. And those discussions, say multiple sources, were with AOL founder Steve Case’s Revolution Health, a health portal that launched in January 2007. Revolution Health’s board of directors includes Jim Barksdale (former CEO Netscape), Carly Fiorina (former CEO HP) and Colin Powell (former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).
The merger sounds absurd on its face – the marriage of a womens blogging network with a health portal. But both companies are essentially in the business of selling ads, and there is significant overlap in their demographics if not in their actual users. Revolution Health is in trouble, and has reportedly gone through a number of layoffs and hired Morgan Stanley to represent them in a sale. Certainly their traffic has taken a nosedive, from a high of nearly 4 million monthly visitors to just 1.6 million last month (Google Trends doesn’t show this same decline, although Compete.com does).
The deal may not have made sense for Glam, but it was a heck of a story to leak to the press.
I’ve never heard of Revolution Health, so I’m sure that lack of name recognition could be a factor in their lack of success.
“The merger sounds absurd on its face – the marriage of a womens blogging network with a health portal.” – I disagree, Mike. Women and health go very well together, there are many places where topics weave throughout both genres.
It’s a smart idea, for Glam to add this to their network, and for Revolution Health to actually have a chance of being read.
Agree, Never heard of Revolution, So why would Glam merge with something that is unrecognized? But then again, Glam might have plans.
http://blabtech.blogspot.com
Glam is seeing how medical sites started to grow (and people appreciate them even more). This represents a change change in the healthcare economy. From giving the users (patients?) more information to the actual use of technology (RFID to track blood pressure, etc)
http://trends.g...=all&sort=0
Glam’s traffic seems so small.
the vast majority of Glam’s network traffic comes from other sites they represent. Glam.com itself is relatively tiny.
Unless we have the real analytics stats how can you completely rely on 3rd party stats like compete & quantcast?
Glam Network is a deck of cards, it is build on top of 400 blogs that include some serious bloggers but mostly junk. The bloggers themselves are in many times, as far as I know, are unhappy with the revenue shearing modes, and at times are in the deal hoping that Galm would acquire them, as Glam spreads these false hopes of bloggers exit. Galm.com by itself is a nice website but has little traffic compare to the big boys and offers very humble original material.
So I don’t think Glam is worth a billion dollars and think that at the moment they don’t create enough value on the net.
Revolution Health was originally conceived by Case not as a health portal, but as a sort of 21st century digital HMO which would leverage technology and innovative thinking to actually deliver health care to employees.
How such an ambitious idea morphed into a mere portal and ad network is an example of reverse mission creep, where entrepreneurs start out with grandiose, world-changing plans, only to downsize them into more mundane services.
And Glam Media? How could a third-rate clone of Martha Stewart’s operation be valued at $1 billion?
Revolution is a complete waste. Case is a complete fool about the anything online that has occurred after 2000. His download payment company is the stupidest idea ever and living social is crashing already too.
I can see how the bankers must have tried to put this together with WebMD as a public on NASDAQ trading in the 1.8B to 4B valuation range — Glam buying a health company at one level would make sense as your analysis in your post Michael. There must be a nice overlap in audience and advertising and would give WebMD a run for its money.
However, like you, I think Glam’s focus on its publisher model makes sense — and Revolution Health could have benefited from it. Glam seems to have very strong publisher relationships and display advertisers, something that is harder and harder for to find.
It’s all about synergy! Synergy!! Synergy!!!
Y’see, we get all these women blogging, get ‘em talking about clothes and celebrity gossip, and then they’ll start talkin’ about breast implants and dieting, y’see, and then we got ‘em!
100 million wired, free-spending,digital consumer-babes,in a coveted demographic, all itchin’ to buy that new pair of shoes, vacation cruise, facial mask or tummy tuck!
@man: “The bloggers themselves are in many times, as far as I know, are unhappy with the revenue shearing modes, and at times are in the deal hoping that Galm would acquire them”
Says who?…some of us are quite happy. It is all about the traffic and quality of your site. The higher the traffic and quality the higher the revenue. As simple as that. I belong to several of the blogger user groups in Fashion and Beauty and I am not sure your depiction of us being unhappy is accurate.
There will always be something to b*&tch about with any network but overall I think Glam is the best for small to medium bloggers like us. Better than Blogher for sure
oh and a checking your spelling before sending is a good thing.
any clues on revenues of Glam?
I can only speak for myself and can’t get into the details but glam pays me a minimum or a 50% Rev share. 9 out of 10 my site earns the rev share which tells me that my site is being put out there and sold for decent cpms. I am not sure I would go anywhere else where I can get the cpms plus the services that they offer their publishers.
It just was a matter of time for ‘Revolution’ health to go under… Where to begin? Steve Case put up about 200M of his own dough to start it –funny enough, a ‘health portal’ that did not want physicians’ input when it started [personal experience: several well-recognized MDs were rejected by their 'Content Executive,' a flaming ahole...]
Plus, Steve Case brought on board Carly Fiorina aka the ‘kiss of death’ after driving HP [almost] to the ground.
In reality ‘Revolution’ has been just an advertising ‘portal’ with borrowed content from a few recognized sources such as the Mayo Clinic.
The Carlyle Group invested millions too –by now, their execs must be lining up to kick Steve’s ass…
Holly
P.S.: Carly Fiorina was also on the Board at Backfence.com, a deadpool resident by now. Coincidence? Think not…
Holly
to Stevie and fashionblogger28, you seem to be company men. You talk about some of “us” that are happy who are those “us” if you are a blogger working with glam identify yourself, there is no shame, that will be a good thing.
rev health is deadpool—common is never going to worth a nickel–glam? common holders will do anything to do a big deal that gets them some hard cash……can you say excite @ home?
@man: I did identify myself above. I have nothing to hide and I am not a man :=)
I am sure this is another instance Samir Arora’s wishful thinking. He needs somebody to pick up this house of cards, and hopes to stir interest by planting this kind of rumour. Unfortunately Samir is the kind of guy who has a real problem with telling the truth, having worked with him for years, i have learned never to mention his name to others because his reputation is so bad because of his lying. His previous company Netobjects also at one point was valued at over 1B, but where is it now? bankrupt – gone with the wind.
@Arabian — your comment makes no sense and sounds personal. If you care to read what Michael has written — and I do trust Michael — is that there was a deal on the table with Revolution Health. Sounds like a personal attack by someone who has a grudge and using TechCrunch for slander– something that would fit at ValleyWag, not here.
From what I have read — the trust in Glam and their CEO Samir Arora comes from the fact that they are direct and do not lie or play games with publishers. There is no way people would speak out so strongly if they were not being really really taken care off transparently.
Am I the only one reading these comments and sensing that many “men” are angry that a women focused company is doing well and publishers seem to be happy enough to speak out?
Sounds like Glam is doing OK- and that makes people nervous and upset — they raised 100M, their publishers seem to love them and are making money, they are filling a real need that no one else is, their team is happy working for Glam and Samir, and they are killing NBC in the market.
This rumor has to start from Steve Case or his company — from the comments Revolution is in trouble, not Glam. Sounds too much like the AOL story — we have a revenue reporting problem, so lets lie and hide it by merging with Time Warner. Me thinks who has got to gain from this rumor like this, my gut says Revolution not Glam.
Arabian??? I worked for Samir at NetObjects and just checked with the only Arabian that worked there and he did not post your comment here. I was in the room at NetObjects when Samir stood in front of the whole team on one occasion that I would consider defining for the company, me and Samir as CEO. I look back to the courage and sincerity it took to do that. And me, like most other people in that room, would work for Samir anytime, anywhere for any project. He is rock solid, ethical, stands by his word 100%, high energy, and is loyal to the core. One of the best work experiences I ever had.
Seems to me that the comments section of Techcrunch has become a place to launch personal attacks on Samir. I have also worked for Samir and find him to be completely direct and honest. He commands high loyalty and respect from his employees. It seems to me that your comments are a case of jealousy.
i don’t usually comment – i stay behind the scenes and just focus on keeping our employees supported, but when i saw this series of comments i felt it important to respond. (disclaimer: yes, i work for glam.)
on the topic of glam media’s leader, most of us that have “worked for samir” would do it again – and many have. he has the utmost respect for his employees and is always focused on doing HIS job which is to continue to define the path for making glam as strong and successful as possible for the employees, our publishers, our advertisers and our investors. He does this everyday with 100% integrity and a passion that inspires those around him. i have always been proud to be associated with him.
Regarding our publishers, they have the support of our account management team, our community director, our editors, our technical team and our sales team. We are continuing to build tools to make their lives easier and to continue to increase their success as a partner of ours. If some are unhappy, we usually hear about it right away and do what we can to resolve issues quickly. Our team tries to meet with those that reach out as often as we can via phone, in face-to-face meetings and at gatherings we with have to support them. we hear from many of them that our commitment and relationship with them is refreshing, that they love to know that when they call we will pick up the phone.
I hope we can get back to discussing business models and comparing different new media companies against each other – keeping away from the personal digs that serve no one. Thanks.
Why does it have to get personal?
The value of Glam and its leadership should be determined by the market. So far the company has been very successful raising money, attracting quality network partners and delivering world class advertisers to it’s publishers. By most reasonable and rationale accounts, a very successful business.
Regarding Arabian, I must say from first hand experience, Arabian would not make such ridiculous and untrue comments as I worked side by side with him at NetObjects and know Arabian to be a stand up guy. He has the utmost respect for Samir to this day, enjoyed working for him and would do it again if the opportunity arose. Whoever used Arabian’s name to spread lies is obviously a coward and a very SMALL person of NO CHARACTER. That’s not personal, just an observation.
In dealing with Samir both personally and professionally for over 11 years, I can say he has high ethical standards, is extremely loyal to his employees and is a very successful Entrepreneur in his own right. His record with his companies and his employees speaks for itself.
The combination makes no sense, but it wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened.
When iVillage needed profit, they went out and bought two profitable health companies – healthology and healthcentersonline and a year later sold to NBC for $600 million. Both those companies have effectively been disolved into an updated ivillage total health.
Hi there. It is important to understand that Glam HAS already created and made a market(s) in many VERTICAL CONTENT BUSINESSES. That ship has already sailed.
The discussion here regarding RH and Glam speaks to Glam’s ability to monetize the health vertical. We already know they can, based on their success in introducing and rolling out vertical businesses.
Finally, the issue of valuation. i think we all know, Michael, that the “value” of a digital business is subject to many variables and whether its a billion or not, Glam offers marketers and advertisers a major women’s footprint. And, this footprint (and revenues, business model etc) are scaling nicely.
Samir has built a first class team … but, lets be REAL CLEAR…if the opportunity wasnt being seized by Glam, 320+ blue chip advertisers, worldwide wouldnt have signed up.
So, best of luck to Glam and Rev Health. Both are important businesses and more importantly, great opportunities for marketers to connect with consumers in this very fragemented media world that exists today.
I like very much the writings and pictures and explanations in your adress so I look forward to see your next writings.
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