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Akamai Technologies

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Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Company typePublic (Nasdaq: AKAM)
S&P 500 Component
IndustryInternet hosting services
Founded1998
FounderTom Leighton
Daniel M. Lewin
Preetish Nijhawan
Randall Kaplan
HeadquartersCambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Key people
George H. Conrades, Chairman; Paul L. Sagan, President & CEO
ProductsContent delivery
RevenueIncrease US$860 Million (FY 2009)[1]
Increase US$239 Million (FY 2009)[1]
Increase US$146 Million (FY 2009)[1]
Total assetsIncrease US$2.09 Billion (FY 2009)[2]
Total equityIncrease US$1.74 Billion (FY 2009)[2]
Number of employees
2,108[3]
Websitehttp://www.akamai.com/
Akamai content delivery to a user
Akamai headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), Template:Pron-en) is a company that provides a distributed computing platform for global Internet content and application delivery.

The company was founded in 1998 by then-MIT graduate student Daniel Lewin, along with MIT Applied Mathematics professor Tom Leighton and MIT Sloan School of Management students Jonathan Seelig, Randall Kaplan[4], and Preetish Nijhawan. Lewin was killed aboard American Airlines flight 11 which crashed in the September 11 attacks of 2001. Leighton still serves as Akamai's Chief Scientist. Akamai is a Hawaiian word meaning smart or intelligent with connotations of insightful or wise or skillful. The company's headquarters are in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Content delivery to a user

Akamai transparently mirrors content—sometimes all site content including HTML, CSS, and software downloads, and sometimes just media objects such as audio, graphics, animation, and video—from customer servers. Though the domain name (but not subdomain) is the same, the IP address points to an Akamai server rather than the customer's server. The Akamai server is automatically picked depending on the type of content and the user's network location.

The benefit is that users can receive content from whichever Akamai server is close to them or has a good connection, leading to faster download times and less vulnerability to network congestion or outages.

In addition to image caching, Akamai provides services which accelerate dynamic and personalized content, J2EE-compliant applications, and streaming media to the extent that such services frame a localized perspective.

Primary domains

Akamai Technologies owns about 60 other domains, but the primary domains it uses are:

Customers

Akamai's customers include many large Internet, media, and computer companies, as well as many other non-technical companies with online media distribution requirements.

On July 21, 1999, at Macworld Expo New York, Apple and Akamai announced a strategic partnership to build Apple's new media network, QuickTime TV (QTV), based on QuickTime Streaming Server.[5] Both companies later announced that Apple had made a $12.5 million investment in the company the previous month.[6] Apple continues to use Akamai as their primary content delivery network[7] for a wide range of applications including software downloads from Apple's Website, QuickTime movie trailers, and the iTunes Store.[8]

In September 1999 Microsoft and Akamai formed a strategic relationship to incorporate Windows Media technology in Akamai's FreeFlow service, as well as to facilitate the porting of the FreeFlow product to the Windows platform; this relationship exists to this day.[9]

Other customers include Facebook, AMD, Amazon.com, Adobe Systems, J. C. Penney, Yahoo![7] and Blizzard Entertainment[10].

Arabic news network Al-Jazeera was a customer from March 28, 2003 until April 2, 2003, when Akamai decided to end the relationship.[11] The network's English-language managing editor claimed this was due to political pressure.[12]

In June 2008, The NewsMarket teamed with Akamai to accelerate dynamic content and applications to global media ahead of the Beijing Olympics.[13]

The BBC iPlayer uses Akamai to stream its recorded and live programs, focused through an XML playlist.

The official U.S. government Website for the White House (WhiteHouse.gov) uses Akamai Technologies for hosting video clips of President Barack Obama's Web addresses on their own in-house servers, after having posted previous addresses as embedded YouTube clips on the site.[14]

The Website of China Central Television (CCTV.com), along with all contents and video streaming, has been hosted on Akamai’s edge servers since late 2009.[15][16]

Hulu currently uses Akamai for hosting video.[17]

MIT OpenCourseWare utilizes Akamai's EdgeSuite for its content delivery network.[18]

Acquisitions

In March 2005, Akamai signed an agreement to acquire Speedera Networks for 12 million shares of Akamai common stock, valued at $130 million at that time.[19] Both companies also agreed to halt pending lawsuits involving trade secrets and patent infringement.[20] The acquisition was completed in June 2005.[21]

In November 2006, Akamai acquired Nine Systems Corporation for roughly $164 million[22] using "approximately 2.7 million shares of our common stock, approximately $4.5 million in cash and the assumption of options to purchase approximately 400,000 shares of our common stock."[23]

On April 12, 2007 Akamai acquired Red Swoosh in exchange for 350,000 shares of Akamai common stock.[24] The acquisition of Red Swoosh was valued at approximately $15 million, net of cash acquired.

In late 2008, Akamai acquired Acerno, a performance-based ad network, and launched a new division, Advertising Decision Solutions.[25]

On February 14, 2011 during Mobile World Congress 2011 Ericsson and Akamai announce an exclusive strategic alliance focused on bringing to market mobile cloud acceleration solutions aimed at improving end-user Internet experiences such as mobile ecommerce, enterprise applications and internet content. The companies will jointly develop solutions for the fast-growing market of content and applications delivered to mobile devices.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Akamai Technologies (AKAM) annual SEC income statement filing via Wikinvest
  2. ^ a b Akamai Technologies (AKAM) annual SEC balance sheet filing via Wikinvest
  3. ^ "Company Profile for Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM)". Retrieved April 19, 2010.
  4. ^ http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/1999/press_011499.html
  5. ^ http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/1999/press_072199.html
  6. ^ http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/1999/press_081899c.html
  7. ^ a b http://www.akamai.com/html/customers/customer_list.html
  8. ^ http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/2003/press_042903.html
  9. ^ http://www.akamai.com/html/about/press/releases/1999/press_092799.html
  10. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_games
  11. ^ "Akamai ends Al Jazeera server support". News.com.com. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  12. ^ "Al Jazeera Denied Akamai Services". Tech.mit.edu. April 8, 2003. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
  13. ^ "The NewsMarket partnered with Akamai to Accelerate Dynamic Content and Applications to Global Media Ahead of Beijing Olympics". Akamai Technologies. June 9, 2008.
  14. ^ http://paidcontent.org/article/419-obama-drops-youtube-for-akamai-on-whitehouse-gov/
  15. ^ http://www.robtex.com/dns/www.cctv.com.html
  16. ^ http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.cctv.com
  17. ^ http://www.hulu.com/about/media_faq#technology
  18. ^ "Free Online Course Materials FAQ: Technology MIT OpenCourseWare:". Retrieved June 14, 2010.
  19. ^ "Akamai to Acquire Speedera Networks". Press Release. Akamai Technologies, Inc. March 16, 2005.
  20. ^ "Akamai snaps up rival Speedera". CNET News. March 16, 2005.
  21. ^ "Akamai Completes Acquisition of Speedera Networks". Press Release. Akamai Technologies, Inc. June 13, 2005.
  22. ^ "Akamai to the Nines". The Motley Fool. Retrieved November 30, 2009.
  23. ^ "Form 10-K for Akamai Technologies, Inc". Retrieved November 30, 2009.
  24. ^ "Form 10-Q for Akamai Technologies Inc". Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved September 18, 2007.
  25. ^ "Connect your products and services to a buying audience". Akamai Technologies, Inc. April 30, 2009.
  26. ^ "Ericsson and Akamai establish exclusive strategic alliance to create mobile cloud acceleration solutions". February 14, 2011.

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