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Cloud services provider Akamai announced its intent to acquire Prolexic Technologies, a provider of cloud-based security solutions for protecting data centers and enterprise IP applications from distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Under terms of the agreement, Akamai will acquire all of the outstanding equity of Prolexic in exchange for a net cash payment of approximately $370 million, after expected purchase price adjustments, plus the assumption of outstanding unvested options to purchase Prolexic stock.
The closing of the transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, is expected to occur in the first half of 2014, a joint company statement said.
Prolexic combines DDoS mitigation solutions with security operations expertise for protecting data centers and enterprise IP applications, while Akamai provides solutions for defending Websites and Web applications by leveraging the scale and intelligence of its global platform to protect against DDoS and application-layer attacks.
“Any company doing business on the Internet faces an evolving threat landscape of attacks aimed at disrupting operations, defacing the brand, or attempting to steal sensitive data and information,” Tom Leighton, CEO of Akamai, said in a statement. “By joining forces with Prolexic, we intend to combine Akamai’s leading security and performance platform with Prolexic’s highly-regarded DDoS mitigation solutions for data center and enterprise applications protection. We believe that Prolexic’s solutions and team will help us achieve our goal of making the Internet fast, reliable, and secure.”
Through its acquisition of Prolexic, Akamai intends to provide customers with a more comprehensive portfolio of security solutions designed to defend an enterprise’s Web and IP infrastructure against application-layer, network-layer and data center attacks delivered over the Internet, a company statement explained.
“Today, business is defined by the availability, security and latency of Internet-facing applications, data and infrastructure,” Scott Hammack, CEO at Prolexic, said in a statement. “Being able to rely on one provider for Internet performance and security greatly simplifies resolution of network availability issues and offers clients clear lines of accountability. We believe that, together, we will be able to deliver an unprecedented level of network visibility and protection.”
In October, Akamai introduced the Open Platform Initiative, designed to give customers and partners the ability to more easily architect for Akamai services.
Akamai’s Cloud Monitor provides a real-time data feed that delivers transactions and security data from the company’s Intelligent Platform to users’ reporting environments for increased visibility and insight into trends and patterns. In addition to offering the capability for custom integrations, users can also leverage out‑of-the-box integration through Akamai’s relationships with companies such as BMC and Sumo Logic.
For customers and partners that are looking for deeper integration into existing processes and operating environments, Akamai {OPEN} provides access to a set of Representational State Transfer (REST)-style application programming interfaces (APIs) designed to ensure seamless visibility into, and greater control over, their interaction with the Akamai Intelligent Platform from any environment.