OpenX battles Google for online ad cash

by Gareth Jones, revolutionmagazine.com 09-Jun-09, 09:02

LONDON - OpenX, the ad serving start-up, has secured an extra $10 million (£6.2m) in funding to help it take on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! in the battle for online ad spend.

The company, launched by former Yahoo! executive Tim Cadogan, plans to use the investment to expand the 300 billion page impressions it serves each month through its network of 150,000 websites.

OpenX is already in the same league as Google-owned DoubleClick, but it is planning to expand its range of technology products as the fight to secure dwindling marketing cash intensifies.

The California-based company recently launched an online ad marketplace to make it easier for advertisers to run ad across smaller, niche sites.

OpenX has developed its ad server through the open-source developer community over the last nine years, It has already secured $20.5m (£12.7m) in two rounds of funding.

Last month Google chief executive, Eric Schmidt, hinted that the internet giant is planning to launch an ad exchange allowing brands to bid for display inventory across YouTube and other sites in the Google Content Network.