Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Akamai adds acerno to acquisition list in $95M deal

By Mass High Tech Staff

Akamai Technologies Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire New York-based acerno Inc. for about $95 million in cash. The deal, which still needs the approval of acerno’s stockholders, is scheduled to close later this quarter. Cambridge-based Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM) does not expect it to have a material effect on Akamai’s earnings this year, company officials said.

Acerno, an online co-operative of shopping and purchase data for online advertising, is expected to complement Akamai’s advertising decision solutions, a new product line the company is also announcing. Acerno, founded in 2004 as a division of i-Behavior Inc., operates offices in New York and San Francisco. Its data is based on shopping and purchase data from an association of more than 450 brands and Internet retailers combined with 140 million customers, officials said.

Akamai, founded in 1998, operates an Internet content delivery network. Last year, the company acquired California’s Netli Inc. in a stock deal worth about $117.6 million. In 2006, Akamai Technologies acquired San Diego, Calif.-based Nine Systems Corp. Inc. in a combination of stock and cash worth an estimated $160 million.

Akamai, which employs about 1,300 workers, reported a profit of $101 million for 2007 on revenue of $636.4 million.