Akamai Technologies:
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) is a company that provides a distributed computing platform for global Internet content and application delivery, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 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 and Preetish Nijhawan. Leighton still serves as Akamai's Chief Scientist, while Lewin was killed aboard American Airlines flight 11 which was crashed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Akamai is a Hawaiian word meaning smart or intelligent.
[edit] Content delivery to a user
Akamai content delivery to a user
Akamai transparently mirrors content—sometimes all content including HTML and CSS, 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.
[edit] Customers
Akamai's customers include many large internet, media and computer companies.
Arabic news network Al-Jazeera was a customer from 28 March 2003 until 2 April 2003, when Akamai decided to end the relationship.[2] The network's English-language managing editor claimed this was due to political pressure.[3]
[edit] 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.[4] Both companies also agreed to halt pending lawsuits involving trade secrets and patent infringement.[5] The acquisition was completed in June 2005.[6]
On April 12, 2007 Akamai acquired Red Swoosh in exchange for 350,000 shares of Akamai common stock.[7] The acquisition of Red Swoosh was valued at approximately $15 million, net of cash acquired.
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