• deathwatch

    Glam Media making publishers wait four months for cash

    When will Samir Arora admit that Glam Media, his online ad network, is running out of money? Glam buys up ad space on websites and resells it to advertisers, as well as operating a few token websites itself. But it has overpaid for much of that space, and revenues are running dangerously short of projections. Now, Glam is delaying its payments to partners by up to 120 days, claiming that the move is necessary because advertisers are slowing their payments to Glam. Which is utter nonsense. More »

    3:20 PM on Tue Nov 4 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    549 views, 2 comments

    Latest by Robert Barr: The only organization that I know of that pays net 120 is the government. If Glam is have accounts receivables more »

  • commentards

    Be careful what you write about Glam

    It's a predictable routine: Write about Glam Media, Samir Arora's dangerously bubbly online-advertising startup, and get bombarded by comments from website operators for whom Glam sells ads. The latest victim: Saul Hansell of the New York Times, who dared to point out that most of Glam's traffic comes not from the kind of high-quality, editorially driven websites his salespeople promise to advertisers, but from horoscopes, social networks, and gaming sites. Two Glam publishers promptly weighed in. It almost makes one wonder if, like a political campaign, Arora gins up faux grassroots complaints. (Valleywag has attracted its own reliable Glam commenter, AretinaAegeus.) Like a well-done Astroturfing, as the process is known in politics, the comments seem genuine enough — original wording, no cutting-and-pasting of talking points. But the process may backfire on Arora. Goaded by the commenters, Hansell updated his piece with a more concise — and damning — explanation of why Glam may be scamming its advertisers: More »

    11:40 AM on Tue Oct 21 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    939 views, 5 comments

    Most discussed It Must Be Take a Worm for a Walk Week: Glam is the Amway of the internets. more »

  • online advertising

    Layoff-ridden Glam Media launches men's site Brash.com

    We were so hoping that our source was kidding when we first heard of online ad network Glam Media's plans for a men's website called Brash last month. Alas, no. The site has launched, but no need to visit: If you've read Esquire or Men's Journal, and can imagine the palest possible imitation of those publications, then you've got the picture. What's really happening here: More »

    2:40 PM on Mon Oct 20 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,265 views, 8 comments

    Most discussed AretinaAegeus: First the kudos, yes once again you did break the story :) yet one more time! But oh Owen, just when more »

  • rumormonger

    Layoff-happy Glam Media losing customers

    Samir Arora, the superslick salesman who runs online-advertising startup Glam Media, spun last week's layoffs of 14 people as a routine move to contain costs. Just another amazing act of presciently efficient management at a company Arora has sold to investors as the future of all media. What story, we wonder, will Arora come up with to explain the company's disappearing customers? More »

    9:40 AM on Tue Sep 30 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,212 views, 13 comments

    Most discussed AretinaAegeus: As a publisher, I take serious offense at your continued posts bashing Glam. May be because you are a part more »

  • samir arora

    Glam Media puts out press release to promote founder's new wife

    Only in Silicon Valley would a marriage be announced by press release. No, Glam Media founder Samir Arora wasn't so crass as to issue a communiqué about his wedding; but he let word slip in the announcement of a new online-advertising network from Glam for health and wellness websites. The former Rebecca Bogle, now Rebecca Arora, is running the network. The two married in March 2008, according to an online gift registry. Her LinkedIn profile tells us that, in addition to working as Glam's "wellness editorial director," she's also a "Zentherapy bodytherapy practitioner at Izii." Aside from that, she had stints at Oracle and Accenture, both less than two years in length. Working for either company, even that long, could lead one to need therapy — as might getting married to the erratic and mercurial Samir Arora. Arora's love note to his bride: More »

    1:20 PM on Fri Jul 25 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,666 views, 9 comments

    Latest by workingstiff: @dingdongditch: he likes 'em white and sweet, like his darjeeling tea.. more »

  • glam.com

    Glam.com CEO so pretty in pink

    He says he invented the term "website," practices zazen meditation, and would have us believe he would accessorize his custom tailored duds with pink even if it weren't the official color of his Web site. In a gushy profile of girly ad platform Glam.com's founder Samir Arora by the London Times, Arora's over-glossed sense of worth is rivaled only by the rumored $1.3 billion price tag on his company. Which, by the looks of the press rampage Glam is on, is as bolstered by frothy tidbits of their founder's "glam" lifestyle as it is by the slippery story that Glam has cornered the women's market online — which they haven't.

    11:20 AM on Mon Jun 23 2008
    By Melissa Gira Grant
    867 views, 6 comments

    Latest by Goose Spruce: If you throw Naveen Jain into the mix, you'll get the worlds biggest ego company. more »

  • online advertising

    The $1.3 billion Glam scam

    Did anyone actually offer to buy Glam Media for $1.3 billion? We asked sources familiar with the company and its publishing partners. The one-word answer: No. The two-word answer: No way. The non-verbal answer: giggles. So who's the source of the rumor? Probably Glam CEO Samir Arora himself. Says an indury source: "Everybody tells me that they think Samir's saying it to puff himself up." For the record, this is our theory of choice, too. But someone close to the company, offered a fascinating but less plausible theory. More »

    Feature

    5:00 PM on Thu May 29 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    2,575 views, 10 comments

    Latest by adnews: @adsallday: where do you get your news. you are wrong, like all others on here, on many others. i know more »

  • glam.com

    Why Tim Draper's latest virus isn't catching

    Glam Media is the "fastest growing company on the face of the earth," according to its backer, the always hyperbolic Tim Draper. In an interview with AlwaysOn's Tony Perkins, Draper compares Glam, an online ad network, to past investments like Hotmail and Skype. But aside from enjoying his backing, there's little resemblance. A better comparison? Enron, another company with metastasizing revenues. More »

    1:42 PM on Tue Feb 5 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,232 views, 8 comments

    Latest by rebump: Real funny that the scientologist remark is followed immediately by yet another supporter...in true Scientology fashion. I think. more »

  • exclusive

    Glam Media raising a round -- but far less than it hoped for

    Samir Arora, the Valley's most talented flim-flam artist, has convinced investors to put in a fresh round of financing into Glam Media, his online-ad network. The deal could be announced as soon as tomorrow. The amount raised: Between $30 million and $100 million, we hear, valuing the company at as much as $400 million. A lofty figure, given Glam's scant sales — but Arora had sought a $200 million round, and a valuation in the range of $800 million to $1 billion. The premise of that valuation: The 25 million monthly visitors to sites in Glam's network, many of them female. But investors likely figured out that Glam doesn't own most of the sites those people visited. More »

    11:59 AM on Thu Jan 31 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    1,147 views, 2 comments

    Latest by clubvoila: I am a one of Glam's Bloggers and know people there that know what's going on. They tell me more »