OpenX Now Angling for Google with Microsoft’s Help

OpenX has long been angling for Google’s online ad dominance. And after a new multi-year deal with Microsoft, announced this morning, they’ll have an even bigger ally in the fight. The partnership has been in trials for over a year, but is now official.

Explains TechCrunch:

Under the agreement, Pasadena-based OpenX becomes a preferred partner to publishers for enterprise ad serving solutions and has agreed to promote Microsoft’s Content Ads monetization products and eventual future products to its own roster of web publisher customers.

OpenX said that publishers usings its recently launched OpenX Market and Ad Server products will be able to use MS’s Content Ads, and that the Redmond software giant will refer potential customers to OpenX.

OpenX Market and Ad Server compete with Google’s Ad Manager product. Display is obviously not Google’s bread and butter (though every little bit helps), and it is OpenX’s.

Interestingly, after last year’s acquisitions, OpenX’s advertising services compete not only with Google’s DoubleClick but also Microsoft’s aQuantive. Perhaps Microsoft doesn’t see them as quite enough of a threat to their advertising business—or perhaps they just want market share so badly that they’re willing to foster internal competition.

What do you think? Will OpenX and Microsoft be able to take on Google?

OpenX Raises Another $10M to Help in Its Efforts to Bring Down Google

It seems that OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan is doing something that he struggled to do at Yahoo–compete with Google.

The ad technology provider and marketplace has just announced a third round of venture capital with $10.4 million being added to the war chest, courtesy of DAG Ventures.

The company is certainly doing well to fend off Google’s own Ad Manager product–claiming an impressive 300 billion ads monthly on more than 150,000 websites across the web. The money will help OpenX further expand both the downloadable and hosted versions of its ad server, while continuing to grow its recently launched OpenX Market.

So, how is this small start-up able to stand head-to-head with the search giant? Simple. OpenX isn’t trying to fight Google on its strengths.

The threat of Google’s entry into the sector has prompted OpenX to tout its independence, neutrality and openness as distinguishing features, although Cadogan stressed that its ad server product is also more customizable than Google’s. “We couldn’t outspend them, so we’re trying to create a different value proposition,” he said.

Sounds like a good plan. In fact, with more and more start-ups taking the same approach, it makes you wonder if Google could end up the way of Gulliver.