OpenX Picks Ex-Yahoo Cadogan For CEO, Moving To LA
By Robert Andrews - Wed 09 Apr 2008 01:07 AM PST
Bye-bye, OpenX. The open-source ad server platform, which rebranded from OpenAds in February, is moving HQ from London to Los Angeles. In the process, it’s hiring Yahoo’s (NSDQ: YHOO) former global ad marketplaces SVP Tim Cadogan as CEO, AllThingsD reports, confirming a tip we received.
OpenX, which has 30 staff, got a $5 million first round investment led by Index Ventures last summer and a $15.5 million second round led by Accel in February, at which point it hired ex AOL (NYSE: TWX) CEO Jonathan Miller as chair - but was still to settle on a business model. Cadogan was with Yahoo for five years after coming from GoTo.com but left about six weeks ago.
Outgoing CEO James Bilefield will stay on as an adviser. Skype still lists Bilefield as its Europe general manager - but OpenX told me he will not be returning to Skype later clarified Bilefield had not worked for Skype since joining OpenAds nine months ago. Bilefield is clearly losing out in what is a restrategising of the business under new blood and new money, though his comments via press release suggest all is rosy: ”The US is the global hub for the online publishing and advertising markets, so we need a very strong presence in that market. As we scale our publisher base and introduce exciting new services to help publishers increase their revenues from online ads, the time is right for OpenX to bring in new, US-based leadership and relocate across the Atlantic. I am delighted we have attracted Tim Cadogan to lead OpenX into this next stage.”
OpenX claims over 30,000 publishers in over 100 countries for its free software and fancies it can challenge larger ad nets by giving publishers more control - that may be harder than it sounds. Cadogan (via AllThingsD): “You have not really seen open-source models really applied to the ad space until now…but there is a big business in giving publishers a really robust offering and a platform where they can also share what they build.”
Posted in: Advertising, Industry Moves
Tags: tim cadogan, openx,
