Thanks to an advertising technology partnership inked with OpenX, Microsoft has been granted access to a massive new distribution channel. According to the Redmond company, the OpenX community consists of in excess of 150,000 websites which deliver more than 300 billion advertisements per month. It will be through these 150,000 websites that OpenX will push Microsoft’s Content Ads monetization products. The two companies have also left room for additional products to be added to the base of Web publisher customers.

“We’re pleased to build on the foundation we laid last year, and we’re especially pleased that Microsoft has selected OpenX as a technology partner,” noted Tim Cadogan, chief executive officer of OpenX. At the same time, Microsoft will open up access to new potential customers for OpenX, through referrals. The software giant noted that it would direct customers interested in enterprise advertising technology and services to OpenX.

“We think our product suite is particularly well-suited to helping grow the businesses of those new publishers Microsoft will refer to us. Similarly, we think that Content Ads will provide an additional and important monetization option for existing OpenX publishers, while helping them increase their advertising revenue,” Cadogan added.

Neither Microsoft nor OpenX wished to make public the financial details of the agreement. The duo debuted a Content Ads trial in August 2008. With the trial considered successful, Microsoft and OpenX are now moving forward with the multiyear advertising technology partnership. Microsoft revealed that Content Ads would be made available to OpenX Market publishers, and that the ad-company would put together a plug-in to OpenX Ad Server, designed to streamline participation into Content Ads.

“Microsoft believes that rapid innovation and openness is foundational to great advertising technology,” explained Scott Howe, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Advertiser & Publisher Solutions, the company’s ad technology and monetization platform. “We are pleased to partner with a company that supports this vision. OpenX is a leading technology provider of valuable options and solutions to the publisher community and, by extension, the digital advertising ecosystem as a whole.”