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Glam Media Raises Additional Capital in Private Strategic Financing from Mizuho--one of World's Leading Financial Institutions

Posted on: Monday, 6 April 2009, 05:45 CDT

Glam Launches New Joint Venture in Japan with Top Agencies, Traditional Magazine and Newspaper Media Companies as Investors: Dentsu, ADK, Shogagukan, Syueisya and NikkeiBP

Hubert Burda Media Makes Additional Round of Investment in Glam Germany Fueling Glam's Continued Global Expansion

SILICON VALLEY, Calif., TOKYO, and MUNICH, April 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Glam Media, the #1 online vertical content network globally with more than 1,000 publishers, today announced that Mizuho Venture Capital, a subsidiary of Mizuho Bank, will make a substantial investment in Glam Media, Inc., the US parent company of Glam Media Japan KK and Glam Germany. Glam also announced a new joint venture for Glam Media Japan KK with investments from top ad agencies Dentsu and ADK, leading magazine publishers Shogagukan and Syueisya, top news and print publisher NikkeiBP and additional local investment by Mizuho. In addition, Hubert Burda Media announced an additional second round of investment in the joint venture with Glam Media in Germany.

"Glam Media has proven its new media model can fuel one of the fastest-growing online companies in these difficult economic times," said Samir Arora, chairman and CEO of Glam Media. "We are honored to have prestigious investors such as Mizuho, Dentsu, ADK, Shogagukan, Syueisya, NikkeiBP and Hubert Burda Media as our partners in helping build Glam Media into one of the leading media companies of the world."

The total new investment in Glam Media is approximately US $10 million and will be used to continue expansion in the US, as well as significantly grow its international presence in Japan and Germany. Glam Media's vertical media model has helped over 1,000 top brands worldwide utilize the Web as a smart way to reach their audiences more effectively. This investment underscores Glam's momentum as one of the few companies that continues to buck the economic trend and grow significantly year-over-year.

Mizuho Venture Capital Inc, a subsidiary of one of the largest mega banks of Japan--Mizuho Bank is the lead direct investor in Glam Media, Inc. In the US, Mizuho brings valuable insight and knowledge as one of the top financial institutions worldwide to Glam Media.

From its launch five months ago, Glam Media Japan KK now reaches nearly two million unique visitors a month, and has built a strong advertiser base with brands including: Fendi Japan; Kanebo; MHD Diageo Moet Hennessy; Panasonic, Wacoal and NTT DOCOMO. Glam Japan is led by CEO Yukihiro Yamamura, formerly CEO of DoubleClick Japan and Excite Japan, and managed by Ernie Cicogna, Glam co-founder and SVP Emerging Markets,

Corporate Development, and the Publisher Network.

Today, Glam is also announcing a newly formed joint venture with leading agencies and traditional media companies in Japan. Investors in Glam Japan KK include: Dentsu, Inc, the number one advertising agency in Japan and the third largest in the world; Asatsu-DK, Inc. (ADK) the third largest advertising agency in Japan and a part of the WPP group; Shogagukan one of the largest print publishers in Japan with titles including Doraemon and Pokemon comics; Syueisya, Inc. a leading publisher and operator of the largest network for women S-woman.net; and the business publisher NikkeiBP. Mizuho will also be making a minority investment in Glam Media Japan KK joint venture in addition to the corporate investment in Glam.

"With our joint venture, Glam Media is aligned with the best names in advertising, media and finance in Japan," said Yukihiro Yamamura, CEO of Glam Japan and VP of Glam Media. "Together we are building a company with the right model and scale for brand advertising in Japan."

In Europe, Glam Media Germany was formed as part of the local company launch in July of 2008. Hubert Burda Media's investment in Glam Media Germany is a result of the rapid growth and positive reception from local market advertisers. Last month, Glam was named the exclusive marketing partner for the new online campaign around www.lorealsecrets.de from L'OREAL Paris. Just six months after launch, Glam Germany's reach tripled and Glam is now number one in reach for women locally with over 3 million uniques a month, according to comScore.

Dr. Marcel Reichart, managing director of Hubert Burda DLD said, "Glam Media Germany has accomplished a successful launch and has rapidly reached the market leader position and has built a top-notch management team. With these results, we are pleased to be increasing our investment in the local business and our partnership with Glam."

About Glam Media

Glam Media is the pioneer and global leader of Vertical Content Networks, a revolutionary new media model that brings brand advertisers to targeted vertical audiences online on a large content network with massive reach.

Last week, Glam launched the revolutionary new Tinker.com, the first micro-blogging platform for people to find, follow, filter, create and share real-time conversations on events and breaking news. Tinker brings context, filters and curation to micro-blogging--and is the first safe monetization model for brand advertisers.

With more than 1,000 publishers worldwide, with over 6,000 editors and contributors, Glam Media's reach through its Glam Women's network and Brash Men's network is deep and far-reaching; it is number one for Women and a comScore Top 10 Display Ad Publisher, with a total reach of 103 million unique visitors globally and 51 million uniques monthly in the U.S. Glam Media is #1 for Women in US, UK, and Germany and was the second-fastest growing company in the comScore 100 for 2008. Glam Media is backed by Mizuho Venture, Hubert Burda Media, GLG Partners, Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden Venture Capital and Information Capital. The company is headquartered in New York City, New York and Silicon Valley, California, with offices in Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, and internationally in London, Munich, Berlin and Tokyo.

SOURCE Glam Media

Source: PR Newswire

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