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Earlier this week, Ning collected $44 million in funding - that’s easily the main story here.  But to add an important update to this event, Ning has also now reached the point where it has over 75,000 social networks.

Gina Bianchi, Ning’s cofounder, posted a comment on the official blog.  “Holy cow.  We will end the day with over 75,500 social networks on Ning,” she wrote on Thursday.  “I’ve gone fishing this week, but I had to stop and say you all rock.  Expect more network profiles next week when I am back in action!”

There’s a picture of a cupcake, as well.  I’m not sure what it has to do with Bianchi’s post, or with my article, but I’m hungry, so it’s getting mentioned.

Back to the news.  On Monday, Marc Andreessen, Ning’s other cofounder, made an announcement regarding the $44 million.  “[W]e recently closed our first outside investment round - our so-called ‘Series C’ - with a top-notch group of institutional investors,” he stated on the Pmarca Blog.

For those of you who are interested in financial details - and there is one curious bit about Andreessen’s own involvement - he continued, “The round was orchestrated by our friends at Allen and Company in New York. . . .  The round was led by Legg Mason with a number of other investors participating, including me.”

So there you have it - Ning is rich, popular, and in possession of a chocolate cupcake.  Sounds good to me.