It sort of does - if the money came from existing investors in a follow-on round. If they're just trying to keep it from being a down round for appearances sak

It sort of does - if the money came from existing investors in a follow-on round. If they're just trying to keep it from being a down round for appearances sake - as in Ning would run out of money otherwise - they might be contributing in amounts equal to the existing cap table, so whatever the valuation they're only cramming themselves down, and it doesn't matter how much. I don't know what happened, but this makes sense. Most every investor is shoveling money into their existing deals right now to keep them afloat. I could issue a million shares, then sell you one for $750, and wallah, I'm valued at $750m. Neat trick eh? Someone slap me if my stock math is broken.