EXHIBIT 99.1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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Jeff Young
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Sandy Smith |
Media Relations
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Investor Relations |
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617-444-2804 |
jyoung@akamai.com
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ssmith@akamai.com |
AKAMAI TO ACQUIRE NETLI
Combines leading managed service providers for accelerating performance
of Internet applications
CAMBRIDGE, MA and MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA February 5, 2007 Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM)
and Netli, Inc. announced today that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement for
Akamai to acquire Netli in a merger transaction. The transaction, which is subject to customary
closing conditions, including the approval of Netlis stockholders, is anticipated to close later
this quarter. The acquisition is expected to be neutral to Akamai earnings on a normalized,
diluted per share basis* in 2007.
The acquisition of Netli is expected to enhance Akamais application acceleration solutions, which
improve the performance of Web- and other Internet-based applications. According to Gartner, a
leading research firm, the market for application acceleration spending is forecasted to grow to
$3.3 billion in 2010. Akamai and Netlis combined managed services will seek to address two
important market segments identified by industry analysts application delivery controllers and
WAN optimization controllers.
By combining Netlis high performance communications protocol with Akamais massive global scale
and unique capabilities to route Internet traffic around points of congestion, Akamai expects to
offer businesses the most comprehensive and effective managed services for accelerating
applications. These services enable enterprises to improve the performance of dynamic,
highly-interactive applications such as customer portals, collaboration platforms, e-learning
environments, and business-to-business commerce.
Organizations often face conflicting technology challenges as they move business processes to the
Internet to increase revenues, expand into new markets, streamline operations, enhance
productivity, and ensure customer satisfaction. Confronted with the need to consolidate
infrastructure to avoid the cost of global data center build-out, enterprises also must ensure
users, customers, partners, and employees experience good performance, regardless of what online
application they are trying to reach and where they are located worldwide. The acquisition of
Netli, when completed, is expected to further establish Akamai as the leading managed service in
the application acceleration space. Akamais managed service provides customers an effective
alternative to deploying costly and often ineffective hardware to improve performance of Internet
applications.
- more -
We are very encouraged by customer acceptance of our application acceleration services, and
believe the alignment of Akamai and Netli will provide enterprises with even better solutions going
forward in this important and emerging market, said Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai.
Akamai and Netli both emphasize leading-edge technology to help businesses deliver more effective,
higher performing online applications, and we are confident that this combination will benefit our
customers, employees, and shareholders.
By joining forces with Akamai to address the large and quickly expanding application acceleration
market, we believe our customers will gain access to an even larger global network and a wider
portfolio of leading-edge services supported by a combination of the most experienced providers in
the industry, said Gary Messiana, CEO of Netli. Our people are very proud of our pioneering work
to deliver proven and effective technology in the area of optimizing online application
acceleration, and we look forward to working with Akamai to combine our technology and capabilities
to create the strongest managed service offering in the industry.
Under terms of the agreement, Akamai will acquire all of the outstanding equity of Netli in
exchange for approximately 3.2 million shares of Akamai common stock, subject to certain
closing adjustments. The merger transaction is expected to be accounted for by Akamai under
the purchase method of accounting.
About Netli
Netli is a rapidly growing global service provider for accelerating applications and content over
the Internet enabling global e-business from centralized infrastructure. Netli provides network
infrastructure as a service, on-demand optimizing application, and content delivery while shifting
bandwidth, computing, and storage requirements to Netli infrastructure. The result is better
utilization of capital budgets and resources by transferring the cost, risk, complexity, and
management overhead of delivering enterprise-scale Web applications and content to Netli. The
worlds three biggest mobile phone suppliers, the largest technology reseller, the largest beauty
products company, the two largest computer manufacturers, and the top two import auto manufacturers
trust Netli for their application acceleration and content delivery needs. The company is
headquartered in Mountain View, California, and was recently included in the AlwaysOn 100 list of
the most innovative technology companies in the world.
About Akamai
Akamai® is the leading global service provider for accelerating content and business
processes online. Thousands of organizations have formed trusted relationships with Akamai,
improving their revenue and reducing costs by maximizing the performance of their online
businesses. Leveraging the Akamai EdgePlatform, these organizations gain business advantage today,
and have the foundation for the emerging Web solutions of tomorrow. Akamai is The Trusted Choice
for Online Business. For more information, visit
www.akamai.com.
# # #
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamais
management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions
under The Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the anticipated closing of the
acquisition, the expectations with respect to integration of the Netli technology and resulting
benefits and the expected future business and financial performance of Akamai resulting from and
following the acquisition. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these
forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to,
inability to successfully integrate the technology of Netli or to develop products based on the
technology, material adverse changes in the financial conditions or operations of Netli,
substantial delay in the expected closing of the proposed merger, inability to secure all consents
and stockholder approvals necessary to effect the proposed merger and other factors that are
discussed in the Companys Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other
documents periodically filed with the SEC.
* In addition to providing financial measurements based on generally accepted accounting principles
in the United States of America (GAAP), Akamai has historically provided additional financial
metrics that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP (non-GAAP). Recent legislative and
regulatory changes discourage the use of and emphasis on non-GAAP financial metrics and require
companies to explain why non-GAAP financial metrics are relevant to management and investors. We
believe that the non-GAAP financial metrics we have included are useful to management and investors
because they provide additional insight into our operations as well as help us assess and monitor
developments in our business. Set forth below are definitions of the non-GAAP terms we use and
explanations of some of the benefits provided by those metrics.
Akamai defines normalized net income as net income before amortization of intangible assets,
equity-related compensation, depreciation of capitalized equity-related compensation, certain gains
and losses on equity investments, utilization of tax NOLs/credits and release of the deferred tax
asset valuation allowance. Akamai considers normalized net income to be another important
indicator of the overall performance of the Company because it eliminates the effects of events
that are either not part of the Companys core operations or are non-cash.
Akamai defines normalized diluted share as diluted common shares outstanding used in GAAP net
income per share calculation, excluding the effect of FAS 123R under the treasury stock method.
Akamai considers normalized diluted shares to be another important indicator of overall performance
of the Company because it eliminates the effect of a non-cash item.