Akamai buys network security firm Bloxx to bolster enterprise cloud offerings
Akamai on Monday said it has acquired Bloxx, a provider of Secure Web Gateway (SWG) technology based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The content delivery network provider plans to use Bloxx's technology to bolster its portfolio of enterprise cloud security offerings, which work to protect corporate networks against phishing, malware, and data exfiltration attacks.
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With the acquisition, Akamai said it hopes to bring a new suite cloud-based security services to market sometime in 2016.
The deal comes on the heals of Akamai's third quarter financial results. The company reported last week a net income of $88.0 million, down from $91.2 million last year. Adjusted earnings were 62 cents per share on revenue of $551 million.
Analysts had expected earnings of 58 cents per share on sales of $550 million.
While initially upbeat, the financial report turned south during the company's earnings call when Akamai set up disappointing guidance targets for the fourth quarter.
Akamai now expects revenues in the range of $567 million range with EPS of 62 cents per share.
Analysts were expecting Q4 earnings of 65 cents per share on revenue of $597 million. Akamai's stock price subsequently dropped as much as 20 percent on the news.
"Most notably, we expect a decline in revenue in Q4 in three of our largest U.S. media accounts, driven primarily by slowing traffic growth compared to our very strong Q4 of 2014," Akamai CEO Tom Leighton said during the earnings call. "The impact is expected to be magnified by their do-it-yourself efforts, but most of the impact is from less traffic growth overall."
On a more positive note, Akamai was also named as a lead investor in the $27 million funding round of ClearSky Data. The startup makes a product for storing company data in tiers based on the specific needs of the company.
Akamai's previous cloud security investments include security startups FireLayers and Rubicon Labs, and networking startup Saguna.