(17 January 2008 3:25 pm)

MUMBAI: Microsoft and Edgar Online have announced a strategic alliance in which the two companies will collaborate to bring relevant advertising to the Edgar audience and content to the MSN portal.

Edgar Online is a premier source of financial information and corporate intelligence and is a leading provider of extensible markup language (XML) and extensible business reporting language (XBRL) tagged data and information.

The content provided by Edgar will include access to all SEC filing documents for publicly traded US companies and will be accessible via the ticker and company search function on the MSN Money website.

"Edgar Online attracts a highly targeted audience with its business and financial content, and coupling that audience with Microsoft's advertising technologies is going to be a winning combination for advertisers," said Microsoft advertiser and publisher solutions' senior VP Brian McAndrews.

Edgar Online executive VP and chief marketing officer Sue Bratone Childs said, "We believe this deal will enhance the experience of our users by ensuring the advertising they see on our site is relevant to their interests."

"Furthermore, the addition of our financial content to MSN Money is a strategic expansion of our brand and reach, and a win for consumers and advertisers alike," added Childs.

Microsoft is expected to begin serving contextual, display and video ads on the Edgar Online site in March. Content integration on MSN Money is under way, and a launch is expected later this year, according to an official release.