Gling? Glam Buys Ning for $200 Million, Mostly in Stock
Glam Media, a social content platform for sites primarily targeting women, said it's buying Ning, the custom social-platform start-up co-founded by Marc Andreessen. — The purchase price wasn't disclosed, but sources close …
Context & Ripple Effects
Ning entered the deal after raising capital at a $500 million valuation in 2008 and later reporting another $15 million round at a $750 million valuation. It had also shifted away from free accounts and said paid service was working.
Glam had been building advertising reach, including a video ad network and earlier large-scale ad ambitions. Buying Ning adds a custom-community platform to that distribution and monetization base.
First-order effects
- Glam takes control of Ning’s custom social-network platform and its paying customer relationships in a reported $200 million, mostly stock transaction.
- Ning’s users and employees move into a company whose existing business is oriented around content distribution and advertising.
Second-order effects
- Glam can pair Ning-hosted communities with its advertising and video-network capabilities, making its offering broader for publishers and marketers than an ad network alone.
- Hosted social-platform rivals face a combined competitor that can sell both audience monetization and community infrastructure.
Third-order effects
- The transaction points to consolidation between media-advertising networks and social-platform providers, with community software becoming a distribution asset rather than a standalone product category.
- If paid accounts remain viable for Ning, buyers of social platforms will have greater incentive to combine subscription revenue with advertising-led media operations.
The trend: Digital-media companies are combining audience monetization with owned community platforms to control both distribution and revenue streams.