Akamai Expands Business Into Central and Eastern Europe

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Jun 28, 2011, 02:00 ET

ZURICH, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, today announced its formal expansion into five countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Akamai's success across the globe has triggered significant demand for its enterprise cloud optimization expertise in the CEE region.

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Forrester predicts the CEE region will reach overall Internet adoption rates of 54% within 2013(1) and according to PricewaterhouseCoopers(2), the number of broadband connections in the CEE region will reach 43.2 million in 2012, an increase of 10 million over the 2010 total of 32.9 million. Additionally, Eurostat(3) reports that a significant portion of total commerce being conducted online in Europe is coming from the Czech Republic (15%), Hungary (14%) and Slovakia (11%). With an increase in the number of major online news, sporting and entertainment events in the CEE region, there is a need for fast, reliable and secure content and Web application delivery, all of which are key Akamai offerings.

Akamai's expansion into Central and Eastern Europe will be led by Bruno Haubertin, a 20-year industry specialist in developing emerging markets. Haubertin has previously managed successful operations in this region, including Middle East and Africa, for Compaq Computer, Digital Equipment and Sun Microsystems.

"Our expansion into Central and Eastern Europe is an important and strategic move for Akamai and I am excited to have Bruno Haubertin leading this effort," explained Greg Lazar, Akamai General Manager & Vice President, EMEA. "Akamai has a strong leadership position in cloud optimization services, online media, e-commerce and security offerings, and we look forward to continuing success working closely with our channel partners in each country."

Akamai will open an office in Krakow, Poland to support CEE customers. Other offices and staffing will be added over the next 6-12 months. The company is also actively working to expand its existing channel partner program in order to support Akamai's focus on the enterprise, commerce, financial services, high-tech, manufacturing and media markets in CEE.

About Akamai

Akamai® provides market-leading, cloud-based services for optimizing Web and mobile content and applications, online HD video, and secure commerce. Combining highly distributed, energy-efficient computing with intelligent software, Akamai's global platform is transforming the cloud into a more viable place to inform, entertain, advertise, transact and collaborate. To learn how the world's leading enterprises are optimizing their business in the cloud, please visit www.akamai.com and follow @Akamai on Twitter.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
This release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the effects of any attempts to intentionally disrupt our services or network by hackers or others, inability to develop media solutions that address the complete needs of programmers, operators and consumers as content libraries are expanded, lack of market acceptance of solutions we do develop, inability to introduce commercial versions of features we have demonstrated, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, and other factors that are discussed in Akamai's Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

(1) Source: Forrester, "Central and Eastern European Internet Access Forecast 2008-2013"

(2) Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers, "Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2010-2014"

(3) Source: Eurostat, "Internet Usage in Households and Individuals"