Glam Media Acquires Startup AdPortal, Debuts Platform To Increase Premium Inventory Sales

Glam

Female-focused media and ad network Glam Media on Friday announced the acquisition of ad-technology startup AdPortal -- a spinoff of sports-focused ad network Sportgenic. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Startup in hand, Glam also debuted an automated publisher-side platform for packaging digital advertising products across multiple channels. GlamAdapt for Publishers, so-called, is designed to help publishers sell more premium inventory through the creation, marketing, and measuring of sales packages.

Samir Arora, chairman and CEO of Glam Media, described GlamAdapt as "a one-stop solution to Web-enable all digital inventory for existing and emerging demand sales channels." Per the deal, AdPortal founder and CEO Robert Tas will be joining Glam Media as vice president of the GlamAdapt Platform.

"Our goal with AdPortal has always been to empower publishers to make the most use of their premium inventory, while making it easy for advertisers to get their message in front of the people they want to target," said Tas -- a former SVP of media and technology at 24/7 and one of the founders of Tacoda. AdPortal's San Francisco-based employees will join the Glam Media ad products team in Silicon Valley.

Late last year, Glam said its flagship U.S. women's division had achieved profitability. In February, Glam raised about $50 million in a Series E round of funding. Aeris Capital led the round along with existing investors Hubert Burda Media's Burda Digital Holding and Mizuho Capital. The new funds were earmarked to build what Glam is calling a Digital Media Technology Center, along with global expansion and strategic acquisitions.

Rumors of a forthcoming IPO were stoked when Glam hired Bruce Jaffe as CFO in May. Before leaving to run his own consultancy in 2008, Jaffe ran the corporate development group at Microsoft.

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