Any doubt that the recession was over in the tech community were settled today when two big rounds were announced: $75 million for Ustream and $50 million for Glam Media.

By themselves the rounds might not seem exceptional, until you consider that Glam had already raised $125 million previously, with its last round of $10 million coming less than 12 months ago. The $50 million is a bit more modest for Ustream, who had previously raised $12.8 million.

How much money is enough?

Ustream has the more difficult business model of the two with bandwidth costs, copyright and UGC management complicating things. They’re doing a good job, and will probably use the money well.

Glam Media though is the complete opposite to Ustream. Proven business model in ads; sure, the spending dropped during the recession, but ads were still there, and given they’ve dropped guaranteed payments for sites they sell ads for, they shouldn’t be losing money selling ads. They’ve also been running the business for over six years (and over four years since officially launching to the public in September 05.) How the f&*k to do you burn $125 million in that time selling ads? More importantly, what sort of insane person thinks putting in another $50 million is going to magically turn around the fortunes of a company that has failed for the last 5 years?

Gla isn’t some highly complicated, ground breaking tech startup that takes time to get the bugs sorted and build an audience, it’s a company that primarily sells ads for other sites.

They’re also not interested in business, or likewise they didn’t blow the $125 million on secretaries: twice in the last two years I’ve contacted them as a potential ad partner, and twice I’ve never had one response, despite speaking to most of their competitors directly. I’m not suggesting that we are a perfect example, but I’ve been told by others that they’ve experienced similar silence from Glam, while most competitors are keen for new sites to represent.

Here’s a hint to Glam: if you don’t have enough quality inventory, you’re not going to attract enough quality ad placements. Even if you’re not interested in increasing the sites you rep at a given time, you should always be considering applications because among the morass of blogs might be a diamond waiting to find a home. The common courtesy of a thanks or no thanks doesn’t take a new round of $50 million to afford.

The funniest thing: they’re talking about an IPO this year. I’d rather go to a casino, the odds are better, and besides, I’d actually know what I was doing.

The Crazy Times Are Back In Startup Land is a post from: The Inquisitr

Along with the funding, Glam Media is announcing a new “joint venture” with a number of traditional media outlets in Japan. Those outlets include Shogagukan, publisher of Pokemon comics; and Syeuisya, which runs one of the country’s biggest women’s networks, S-woman.net. Several advertising agencies are also involved in the deal.

Mizuho Venture Capital, a subsidiary of Japan-based Mizuho Bank, is leading the $10 million investment.

Glam Media Scores $10 Million is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Glam Applications Network has already partnered with developers such as Meebo, PollDaddy, PicApp, and AOL’s Sphere to create its initial menu of offerings. Applications range from polls and slideshows to video commenting systems and quizzes designed to be embedded in blogs or other sites.

Like other ad-enabled widget systems, the Glam Apps Network’s advertising system lets you place ads — sold by Glam Media, with a revenue sharing model — directly into the apps. You can also choose to use the apps without ads enabled.

As of now, the App Network is available in beta mode only to sites hosted within its Glam.com and Brash.com networks. A public rollout, however, is scheduled for early next year.

The system is fully open source, using standards such as Google Gadget, OpenSocial, and OpenID. A full open source release is set to occur before the end of the year so any developers can get on-board.

Glam Media Launches App Network For Blogs is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s an interesting move from a company that in its most recent round took $80 million and was said to have turned down a $1.3 billion takeover offer in May. A sign of the economic downturn, or something more serious?

Glam has always been an interesting model. At its core it’s a blog network, running some moderately successful sites, but the big money came in as it expanded into advertising on other sites where most of its advertising inventory now resides. I had some experience with Glam years ago at b5media, and they were spending some serious money on getting inventory then, offering well above what most other advertising networks were offering at the time. It’s a model they continued to use, signing up more and more sites, the latest being WomensForum.com in July with 6.7 million monthly views. And yet, things started to go wrong earlier this year when word leaked that Glam was savagely cutting minimum pay rates for many in the network, with some reporting cuts of up to 80%. The cuts could only mean one thing: that Glam wasn’t able to profitably sell advertising above the minimum rates they were promising, undermining their model of acquiring inventory at high base rates.

As the US economy does slow, and online advertising growth declines (I’d note that the overall spend is still growing, but at slower rates this year), the Glam model will only face more pressure. Couple the financials to the Federated Media problem, where successful sites in the network can easily walk away when they’re big enough or confident enough to do their own direct advertising sales (a trend that will accelerate as advertising money gets tighter) and the future isn’t quite as positive for Glam as it once was.

All that glitters isn’t Glam is a post from: The Inquisitr

Glam Media promotes itself as a “fashion and lifestyle destination for women.” The company runs its own network of sites, but primarily servers as an ad provider (and portal) for over 500 external sites. The company has taken $114.2 million over four rounds, then took on $20 million in debt in April this year. Backers include Hubert Burda Media, GLG Partners, Accel Partners, DAG Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Walden Venture Capital and Information Capital.

The 6.7million new viewers are a significant boost to the company at a time it seems to be spending money without making an awful lot, with Glam’s entire network reach before the deal being 42 million unique monthly visitors in the US and 77 million global uniques.

Glam acquired StyleMob in March.

Glam Media scores 6.7m extra eyeballs via Womensforum.com is a post from: The Inquisitr