Akamai Expands Business Operations in Latin America

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ —

• Company opens services and support center in San Jose, Costa Rica
• Akamai Intelligent Platform directly deployed within more than 70 networks in 62 cities across 16 Latin American countries
• Recent appointment of Jim Ebzery, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Americas, bolsters Akamai’s sales and business development in the region

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM), the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere, today announced the opening of its Costa Rica services and support center.  The new center is slated to create over 50 jobs through the end of 2014.  Akamai’s success across the globe has triggered significant demand for its cloud infrastructure solutions within countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Representing roughly 10 percent of the world’s Internet population¹, Latin America has experienced steady growth in online usage across all countries, led by Brazil and Mexico.  As the second-largest IT market among developing nations and the sixth-largest economy in the world, Brazil leads in technology spend among Latin American countries².  Gartner expects Brazil to exceed US$140 billion in IT spending during 2012.  Mexico is the fifth-largest IT market among developing nations, and during 2012, Gartner expects Mexico to exceed US$56 billion in IT spending³.

Over the past 12 months, Akamai has experienced considerable growth on its global platform in Web traffic destined to end users in Latin America.  Akamai’s continued expansion into Latin America will be led by Jim Ebzery, a 30-year industry veteran with executive leadership experience across various high technology disciplines.  Most recently, he ran the Security, Management and Operating Platforms business at Novell, where he led the growth of the security business and expansion of their strategic cloud business.

“The addition of our Costa Rica services and support center is an important step as we seek to expand our customer base in growth markets like Latin America,” said Ebzery.  “We have seen some of our largest growth rates in Internet usage coming from this region.  In fact, looking at our latestState of the Internet data, Brazil experienced a 40 percent year-over-year increase in the number of unique IP addresses connecting to the Akamai Platform.  Key to our efforts in Latin America is to increase our partnerships and expand our operations to support the market opportunity in segments like e-commerce, media & entertainment and financial services.”

With existing sales and business development offices in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the addition of a technical services and customer care team in Costa Rica diversifies Akamai’s world-class support organization.

“Our goal is to enable enterprises to leverage cloud, mobile, media and data strategies, all while addressing the security challenges inherent in today’s hyperconnected world,” continued Ebzery.  “The location of our Costa Rica center allows us to tap into a very skilled pool of local talent to expand the ranks of our world-class services and support team.  We believe this initiative will set us up to better service the Americas as a region.”

Today, Akamai is currently powering 13 out of the top 15 Brazilian retail websites, 3 out of 5 of the largest banks in Brazil, as well as BanifInvest, and has served as a force behind major online events, for regional broadcasters, including the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup.

“Exceda has grown 70 percent year-over-year in Latin America, demonstrating how eager the market is for acceleration and security services,” said Claudio Marinho, CEO of Exceda Americas, an Akamai partner.  “The company’s results in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico increased by tenfold in two years emphasizing the need for cloud infrastructure investments.  Akamai is responding very quickly to our customers’ needs through continued innovation and support.”

About Akamai

Akamai^® is the leading cloud platform for helping enterprises provide secure, high-performing user experiences on any device, anywhere.  At the core of the Company’s solutions is the Akamai Intelligent Platform™ providing extensive reach, coupled with unmatched reliability, security, visibility and expertise.  Akamai removes the complexities of connecting the increasingly mobile world, supporting 24/7 consumer demand, and enabling enterprises to securely leverage the cloud.  To learn more about how Akamai is accelerating the pace of innovation in a hyperconnected world, please visit www.akamai.com or blogs.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, lack of market acceptance of Akamai services in Latin American countries, failure to increase revenues at the rate expected, failure to realize the benefit of network infrastructure improvements, inability to realize expected cost savings, 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: Internet World Stats

(2) Source: Gartner

(3) Source: Gartner

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