(By Balaseshan) Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) said it has agreed to buy Westford, Massachusetts-based Verivue Inc. in an undisclosed cash transaction for accelerating market availability of comprehensive operator content delivery network products.
The acquisition is expected to complement Akamai's Aura Network Solutions and accelerate Akamai's time to market in providing a comprehensive, licensed content delivery network (CDN) solution for network operators.
Verivue develops and markets high-performance IP platforms that enable network operators to distribute, deliver and control enormous amounts of IP-based media traffic across a growing and diverse number of end devices. It offers solutions for service providers to accelerate content delivery for managed and unmanaged service provider networks.
"We believe that Verivue's technology will complement our roadmap for creating a comprehensive Operator CDN solution. We believe joining forces with Verivue will allow us to help operators maximize content revenues and network efficiencies as the flood of media and video traffic increases," said Mick Scully, Vice President and General Manager of Akamai's Carrier Products Division.
Founded in 2006, Verivue has approximately 60 employees. The closing of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to occur by the end of 2012.
According to market research firm IDC, network operators worldwide are looking at ways to leverage on-net CDNs to improve the performance of their own digital cable and IPTV premium services and extend their managed multiscreen offerings.
Operators can position their on-net CDNs and other network resources as optimized on-ramps that content publishers, OTT content aggregators, application developers, and set-top box vendors can use to reach a critical mass of potential viewers and provide a better end-to-end experience for their end users.
AKAM closed Monday's regular session up 0.47% at $36.57. The stock has been trading between $25.90 and $40.32 for the past 52 weeks.