Akamai Pays $370M For Cloud Security Firm

Akamai Technologies has inked a $370 million deal to acquire Prolexic, a provider of cloud-based security systems for protecting data centers and enterprise IP apps from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Akamai said the acquisition will help it provide customers with a suite of security systems designed to defend an enterprise’s Web and IP infrascturue against application-layer, network-layer and data center attacks via the Internet. That protection extends to “mission critical” Web properties and applications, including email, file transfers, virtual private networks.

Prolexic’s DDoS protection partners include service operators such as BT, Level 3 Communications, and Telstra of Australia.

“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, 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.”

Akamai expects to close the deal in the first half of 2014.