
Akamai close to being acquired by Google - scommab
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/12/akamai-google-idUSN1E79B1TA20111012
======
0x12
It's a pity that Daniel Lewin isn't around for this, I'm sure that it would
have been a very nice crown on his work.

to whoever saw fit to downvote this: I hope that people will still remember
your name a decade after you die through no fault of your own when you co-
found a company as successful as Akamai.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_M._Lewin>

The man was a true hero as far as I'm concerned.

~~~
njharman
[Glad others have pointed out this acquisition is probably false rumor.]

Maybe if you're a startup being acquired by bigco, it is a feather in your
hat. A bigco being acquired by another bigco is a failure for acquiree and not
something to crown yourself about.

------
obtino
Apparently not: [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-12/google-is-said-
not-...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-12/google-is-said-not-to-plan-
akamai-takeover-after-report-raised-speculation.html)

 _Google Inc. (GOOG) isn’t planning to acquire Akamai Technologies Inc.
(AKAM), two people familiar with the matter said, countering a report in
Business Insider that fueled speculation a takeover may be imminent._

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byrneseyeview
The tables have turned: this Reuters story is just rehashing Business Insider,
which broke the story earlier:

<http://www.businessinsider.com/google-move-2011-10>

BI's version actually has more background and analysis, in addition to being
the source.

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jcampbell1
How is this good for Google? Akamai is rarely used by Google, but used by
Microsoft/Apple/Facebook. Something seems dirty about a Google acquisition.

~~~
diogenescynic
Remember Google acquired ITA Software-- it was used by all the sites like
Kayak/Bing and the others (American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United
Airlines, Continental Airlines, Orbitz) who buy traffic from Google. Google
bought Picnik because Flickr used it. Google bought Global IP Solutions used
by Yahoo, AOL, WebEx and Lotus.

It seems like these are clearly anti-competitive moves meant to put their
competitors at their mercy.

~~~
megablast
You could see where Google would use ITA, and it made sense. Search engines
are turning into more than just listing websites.

With Akamai, not so much.

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Toddward
Akamai's market cap is $4.3B, which means Google would have to drop at least
that (but really much more) to acquire them. Something tells me Google's
investors are going to go bananas (not in a good way) if this goes through,
especially on the heels of their Motorola Mobility acquisition.

------
WestCoastJustin
Seems like a good fit seeing as " _20% of the world's Internet traffic is
delivered over the Akamai platform._ "
(www.akamai.com/html/technology/visualizing_akamai.html).

Akamai & Google already have duplicate CDN/Endpoint infrastructure (albeit
Akamai's is a CDN platform and Google just delivers for their properties).
Akamai has something like 61k servers in most (if not all) major
datacenters/ISPs and key peering agreements. Major overlap..
DNS/HTTP(s)/Streaming(youtube)/Data Mining, etc. This could possibly be a big
revenue boost for Google in that they consolidate existing peering agreements,
etc. and consolidate servers within the last couple miles. Google already does
many of these things but it is Akamai's sole business and they do it very
well! Probably a big win for Google to have the talent and relationships that
Akamai already has. Akamai customers benefit from Googles infrastructure &
people.

Edit: context + grammer

~~~
le
Akamai's footprint exceeds 100k servers worldwide now, and that's just what
they publicly disclose. It is likely more if you count in their DoD contracts.
They're probably on par with Google now.

------
zmanji
Could this mean Google will offer a file storage and CDN like AWS? What
benefit could Akamai provide to Google besides more infrastructure? I'm sure
Google could enhance their infrastructure without paying a premium.

~~~
hwatson
They already do. <http://code.google.com/apis/storage/>

------
TruthPrevails
I came to know recently that Google had plans to use services of Akamai. When
agreement could not be reached on the pricing, Google came up with its own
content delivery network. Now this acquisition. Puzzling.

~~~
davidu
I do not believe this to be factually correct. Unfortunately, just as this guy
can't list his sources, I can't explain why I believe this to be factually
incorrect (in the letter and spirit).

~~~
TruthPrevails
My source is one of my professors. He told this to the class while talking
about CDN.

------
rudiger
A lot of traffic runs through Akamai.

Google can mine that data and use it in their core product, the search engine.

~~~
dj_axl
Akamai already mines that data for their ad network.

<http://www.akamai.com/html/solutions/ads/acerno.html>

~~~
moe
So perhaps google wants to mine it for _their_ ad network?

~~~
Steko
I like Business Insider's speculation that this is all part of a giant end run
around the cable companies.

~~~
muzz
Yes, interesting how the specifically mentioned Akamai's _video_ distribution,
not the entirely of their business.

------
tybris
Larry's on a spending spree.

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william42
Does Microsoft still run their sites on Akamai? I know Facebook does.

~~~
fname
A lot of corporations use Akamai, Microsoft included --
<http://www.akamai.com/html/customers/customer_list.html>. Interesting enough,
the only name missing from that list? Google.

~~~
adambyrtek
This is not really surprising. Infrastructure is a key competitive advantage
of Google, and they prefer to build their own stuff (including CDNs) instead
of outsourcing it.

~~~
muzz
Yes, so the combination of Google + Akamai would be big enough to trigger
anti-trust concerns, I would imagine.

~~~
jackowayed
Given that Google is barely in the infrastructure market (they mostly just
have a ton for their own uses), I don't see how Google + Akamai would be any
less competitive than Akamai on its own.

I guess there could be some issues since this makes Google's competitors in
other markets reliant on them, but from a "too much good infrastructure in one
company" standpoint, I don't see how there would be anti-trust concerns.

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artsrc
This is a platform, you can just buy them:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3101876>

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foobarbazetc
Anyone who takes anything Business Insider says seriously is a fool.

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andyfleming
Scary...

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teflonhook
If they do this deal it's because they see Amazon as a threat.

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RyanKearney
Looks like Facebook is going to need to find another CDN...

~~~
le
If the deal goes through, it may require Facebook to take a different approach
with their CDN strategy. They will probably either begin to roll their own
(given their size and budgets), or move to a blended environment where they
utilize multiple CDNs based on region and traffic levels.

For example, Apple historically has used Akamai for their content delivery,
but as of around ~2009, they began to use Limelight in conjunction with
Akamai. Just today with the iOS 5/OS X updates, I noticed at home in Los
Angeles that the delivery from Limelight was terrible. I tried it again about
an hour after release, and I was then being sent to Level3.

Suffice to say, Apple is now using three CDNs.

