Monday

Yume Networks signs a deal with Microsoft to distribute unsold inventory

Yume Networks, broadband video advertisement network, has announced a major deal with Microsoft. Jayant Kadambi, CEO, made this announcement on Yume corporate blog. This deal will help Microsoft sell unsold inventory across it’s MSN/Live online services.

We are proud to announce not only that we can now offer advertisers MSN inventory, but we have also been selected as the video ad platform to serve and manage all of Microsoft’s unsold and excess video inventory. For little YuMe, this is great validation of our technology, our platform and our business in general. Our network now reaches over 65% of the US online audience; comprises over 120 million unique visitors and continues to offer real scale for targeted, premium ad spending in the US

120 million unique visitors is an impressive number. It also validates potential in this market segment. Yume has received funding from top tier venture including Accel Partners, Khosla Ventures and DAG ventures. With strong cash position, they should be in a position to ride out tough budget cycles in near future.

This announcement is all the more important as this comes close to Google’s confession of poor YouTube’s monetization effort. Did Microsoft anticipate that and made a quick deal with Yume?

Yume competes with Adjustables and Adapt.tv.