Akamai to gobble down Prolexic for its enterprise DDoS defences

Content firm buys cloud-based security company for $370m

Content delivery and security services firm Akamai has announced its plans to slurp Prolexic, a cloud security outfit, for $370m.

Prolexic will help Akamai strengthen its protection for corporate clients with online protection from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks for data centres and enterprise IP apps.

"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," said Tom Leighton, CEO of Akamai. "By joining forces with Prolexic, we intend to combine Akamai’s leading security and performance platform with Prolexic’s highly regarded DDoS mitigation solutions.

Akamai said it was hoping that the deal will close in the first half of next year. The deal is the second in a row for the content firm, which snagged app traffic optimisation firm Velocious Networks just last month. The terms of that acquisition weren't made public, although Alkamai said it would not be "material to financials". ®