Valleywag
A tipster tells us Glam Media has purchased San Francisco-based fashion blog StyleMob — owned and operated by MobLogic, Inc. — "for chump change and stock (a.k.a more chump change." The StyleMob founders aren't happy about it, the tipster adds.
One StyleMob cofounder, Adam Souzis, already works as an executive director of Glam Lab. Only Sasha Cagen remains with StyleMob. The Souzis connection between the companies and the fact that StyleMob was already a Glam Media publishing partner, however, lend credibility to the rumor.
It's also not surprising to hear that Cagen isn't happy to be acquired by Glam. Glam claims to be "largest women's network" on the Web, but it's really just an ad sales team looking to buy similar-looking inventory low, bundle it, and then sell it higher. It's a poor business model, because to survive in the long-term, publishers have to be able to sell their own inventory at premium rates.
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Glam Media (or Sham Media as we call them) has these sly bits in their ad representation contracts that allows them to grab sites that they rep on the cheap. Basically the clause requires Glam repped sites to notify Glam if they are about to sell the site (BEFORE they sell), and the clauses also give Glam a right to make a competitive offer to purchase the site themselves.
Not saying that's what happened here, but most of these 20 page ad rep contracts are signed without being read, and a lot of these sneaky ad co's are dropping in some nasty clauses that essentially allow companies like Glam to have right of first refusal when it comes to buying out the sites that they work with. Couple those kinds of clauses with the fact that Glam knows exactly what the traffic and revenue is from a site like StyleMob, and the ad representation deals just become a brilliantly efficient way to make cheap acquisitions.
Does anyone think this company is for real? Why did they raise their last round from foreign dollars?
Sasha here: I wanted to correct an inaccuracy in the post.
I also work for Glam Media. All three of StyleMob's co-founders are. We continue to work on StyleMob as well as new social media projects for Glam Labs.
We're co-sponsoring a party with Girls in Tech during Web 2.0 to celebrate the StyleMob acquisition--come party with us! Date: April 24, Time: 6:30 pm, Place: Ambbassador, 673 Geary St., SF
See you there!
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