Orange-France Telecom Group and OpenX Announce Partnership to Launch Orange Ad Market - A New Ad Marketplace Approach to Lead the Evolution of Online Advertising Exchanges in Europe

PARIS and LOS ANGELES, March 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100331/LA79259LOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080813/LAW026LOGO)

• Operated by Orange and powered by OpenX, the world's leading independent provider of advertising technology for web publishers
• Orange Ad Market is the first marketplace to be operated by a leading European advertising player, creating the first European exchange ecosystem
• Open to all buyers and sellers of online display advertising, helping publishers maximize revenue and advertisers engage target audiences across multiple websites
• An innovative alternative marketplace model bringing new choice, unique benefits and cutting edge technology

Orange and OpenX Technologies, Inc. (OpenX) today announced a partnership to launch Orange Ad Market, a new online advertising exchange model designed to lead the evolution of online exchanges in Europe. Orange Ad Market will increase the value of display advertising by helping publishers maximize revenue and helping advertisers much more easily reach their target audiences across large numbers of publishers.

The Orange and OpenX exclusive multi-year, multi-country partnership will see Orange bring the benefits of OpenX's proven global marketplace to European users at a local level. The initial launch will take place in the second quarter of 2010 in the UK and France with planned launches following elsewhere in Orange's European footprint.

Orange Ad Market will be a unique and powerful combination of Orange's local market expertise and supply and demand relationships and OpenX's global technology platform and innovative marketplace design. The Market offers a new approach to online advertising marketplaces by allowing major companies in key regions to participate directly in building exchange value chains, creating the first European exchange ecosystem.

Orange, which operates Europe's largest advertising network, will leverage its strong and established relationships with both publishers and advertisers to bring them into the marketplace where advertisers will bid on publishers' ad inventory in a real-time auction. Through the Orange Ad Network, which has a global reach of 343 million unique users monthly,* Orange has a deep understanding of the needs of both publishers and advertisers, plus experienced local sales and marketing teams providing on the ground support. This extensive local understanding will enable Orange to empower and support its advertising and publisher partners.

Commenting on today's announcement, Luc Tran Thang, Vice President of Orange Advertising, said: "The Western European online advertising market was worth an estimated $13bn in 2008 and is expected to grow to $15bn by 2011.** But it is a complex and cumbersome market to navigate. As Europe's leading advertising network and a major web portal, we have long been seeking to simplify this complexity, which is faced by all advertisers and publishers. We believe that Orange Ad Market is the first step in overcoming the challenge and our partnership with OpenX is the foundation. Their superior technology platform, uniquely open approach to marketplace design and world class team will ensure the success of Orange Ad Market."

OpenX will power the Orange Ad Market by providing the regionally specific toolset required for success in Europe alongside the core technology and market design of the global OpenX Market, which already reaches more than a quarter of a billion (250 million) unique users monthly***. Orange represents the first major partner in a global, interconnected alliance of regional partners driving participation into OpenX Market.

"We're extremely pleased to be partnering with Orange to develop Orange Ad Market," said Tim Cadogan, chief executive officer, OpenX. "We think fusing OpenX's global marketplace with the best-of-breed regional partner in such a vital part of the world is going to truly unlock the full potential of the display advertising space in Europe."

Orange Ad Market will enable publishers to maximize their ad revenue by selling their inventory via a powerful exchange where all classes of buyers compete for each impression in a real-time auction. The auction will be run for every single impression in real-time with a minimum "floor price" set by the publishers.

The Market will feature a number of key and unique benefits:

Benefits for publishers

• Revenue maximization: In addition to their own direct (guaranteed) ad sales, publishers can increase revenue by selling their non-guaranteed inventory in a real-time auction market in which all classes of buyers compete on an impression by impression basis.  
• Zero economic risk: Orange Ad Market allows publishers to set the floor or reserve price for each impression, ensuring price protection.
• Control: The platform features enable publishers to keep control over their inventory, the ads actually displayed on their inventory and the floor price set for their inventory.
• Simple user experience: Orange Ad Market's design allows publishers to participate with just one click of a button. Sales are consolidated into one monthly check.
• Excellent support: All tools are in local language, pricing and billing are in local currencies and all technical and customer support is provided by local teams.
• Global access: Publishers have access to a larger range of advertisers at the international, national and local levels.

Benefits for advertisers and agencies

• Return on investment: Enables advertisers to increase their performance by reaching their target audience at scale.
• Simplicity: Orange Ad Market provides advertisers with simple and powerful ways to buy across a potentially enormous pool of diverse, primary inventory. Advertisers can immediately access and participate on 100% of ad inventory, while making just one consolidated payment even when buying across multiple currencies.
• Efficiency: Advertisers can define and buy ad inventory based on their unique criteria across a combination of large and niche publishers and a large pool of targeting criteria.
• Transparency: Advertisers and agencies maintain complete control over where their ads are displayed.
• Global access: Advertisers and agencies can buy from anywhere and consolidate their purchases at a region level.
• Immediacy: Real-time bidding on both the client and server side and immediate access to auctions ensure an instant and fair bidding process.

* Source : comScore, September 2009

** Source : Zenith Optimedia, December 2009

*** Source : Quantcast

About Orange

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world's leading telecommunications operators. With 131.8 million customers, the Orange brand now covers internet, television and mobile services in the majority of countries where the Group operates. At the end of 2009, France Telecom had consolidated sales of 50.9 billion euros, including its activities in the United Kingdom, and at 31 December 2009, the Group had a customer base of almost 193 million customers in 32 countries. These include 132.6 million mobile customers and 13.5 million broadband internet (ADSL) customers worldwide. Orange is the number three mobile operator and the number two provider of broadband internet services in Europe and, under the brand Orange Business Services, is one of the world leaders in providing telecommunication services to multinational companies.

The Group's strategy, which is characterized by a strong focus on innovation, convergence and effective cost management, aims to establish Orange as an integrated operator and benchmark for new telecommunications services in Europe. Today the Group remains focused on its core activities as a network operator, while working to develop its position in new growth activities. To meet customer expectations, the Group strives to provide products and services that are simple and user-friendly, while maintaining a sustainable and responsible business model that can be adapted to the requirements of a fast-paced and changing eco-system.

France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) is listed on Euronext Paris (compartment A) and on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more information (on the internet and on your mobile): www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.orange-innovation.tv

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange Personal Communications Services Limited, Orange France or France Telecom.

About OpenX

OpenX's purpose is to make advertising technology universally accessible to online businesses of all sizes to help them grow. The company is the world's leading provider of ad technology for web publishers, offering its global community comprehensive, customizable ad-serving technology. OpenX Ad Server empowers more than 150,000 websites with the ability to take control of their ads and maximize their ad revenue. OpenX ad serving products are translated into 25 languages, used in more than 100 countries, and serve more than 300 billion ads monthly. OpenX Market is a unique ad exchange that helps publishers maximize the price of their inventory and advertisers much more effectively target where their ads are served. Each month OpenX Market reaches more than one quarter of a billion (250 million) unique users.

OpenX Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenX Limited, is based in Los Angeles and is backed by leading investors including Accel Partners, Index Ventures and O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. For more information, please visit: www.openx.org

OpenX is a trademark of OpenX Limited.

SOURCE Orange-France Telecom Group; OpenX